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Lower the city's number of SROs
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Change housing and building codes to reduce and eliminate the city's blight of SRO housing by requiring lower tenant to bathroom/kitchen ratios for residential structures and modernizing the building and safety codes. Require restoration of buildings unsuitable for habitation via the new guidelines. Condemn buildings that are deemed unsafe and un-salvageable. Enact harsh fines and criminalization for slumlords and neglectful property owners/managers. Fines and property seizures can be used toward proper housing or needed community resources such as grocery stores, clinics and community/education/employment centers. A large part of what keeps the underclasses poor is cost of housing and the emotion/psychological oppression of living in inadequate, run down and dangerous residences. The main goal should be to eliminate the slums not to make the slums more livable. That would only serve to expand and further entrench people in poverty. I think the city could devise a plan update housing and safety codes that would keep this long term goal in mind while incorporating shorter term goals and deadlines. The city could space out the deadlines for meeting the goals of renovation to allow property owners to comply at a reasonable pace. However, with a ten to fifteen year ultimate goal in mind, the city could also appeal and/or incentiv-ise the property owners to comply to the ultimate, long term goals as soon as possible and thereby save money.
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