About the Task Force
The Task Force on Neighborhood Quality was created by Mayor Jon Mitchell in his first months in office. In his inaugural State of the City speech, Mitchell stated, “The task’s force’s job is simple: to enforce the city code, especially in places where code enforcement has been lax. Certain neighborhoods have suffered, in great part, because a few absentee landlords have purchased tenements out of foreclosure, disregarded housing codes and allowed the properties to become run down. They have turned a deaf ear to law abiding neighbors who have complained again and again. The task force is meant to deal directly with this problem.”
Headed by former Bristol County state prosecutor and current Assistant City Solicitor John Flor, the task force pools the resources of several city departments to conduct targeted and coordinated code enforcement. Members of the Building, Police, DPI, Health and Fire departments regularly meet to conduct full neighborhood sweeps and to investigate individual property complaints.
In the year since the task force’s inception, over two hundreds properties have been targeted and brought into code compliance. Several high crime properties have been boarded up and shut down. Trash strewn lots have been cleaned and absentee owners have been sent the bill. Graffiti covered buildings have been painted over and trash/nuisance violations have been ticketed. Visit our photo gallery and violation map sections to see before and after compliance images.
We continue to look for new ways to improve our operations and look forward to future successes.
