Concentrated Housing Code Enforcement in St. Louis

Abstract

This research employs probit analysis to examine the selection criteria governing nonuniform application of concentrated housing code enforcement in the city of St. Louis. The study has three specific objectives: (1) to identify the goals and geographic selection criteria characteristic of St. Louis' concentrated code enforcement program during the twenty years that it was in effect; (2) to establish whether program goals and selection criteria changed over time and, if so, why; and (3) to provide some judgment on the value of code enforcement as a policy tool to either reverse or slow neighborhood decline. Although fundamentally a case study, the conclusions should be of interest to those concerned with conservation of the housing stock in older cities throughout the country.