Reducing petty vandalism in an affordable housing community
Abstract
Petty vandalism and misbehavior by children means more upkeep costs for affordable housing complexes. To reduce these occurrences, the staff at Dallas City Homes, Inc., talked to children on their way home from school and imposed community service hours on children caught breaking the community policies toward vandalism and misbehavior.
Issue
Dallas City Homes, Inc., is a non-profit organization that owns affordable apartment communities. An issue at the sites has been petty vandalism and misbehavior by the children. Costs from these problems could cause an owner to raise rental rates.
Action
The office staff and community service administrator starting going out on site as school let out. They carry on conversations with the children as they make their way home.
When a child misbehaves, he/she is first given a warning. The staff explains to the child that he/she should care about how the property looks since it is his/her home. The child is also explained the financial cost of repairing damaged property that ultimately gets passed on to the renter in the form of higher rent.
If they are caught a second time, a parent is notified and the child is required to perform an hour of community service. An infraction could be dropping trash on the grounds, graffiti, damage to mailboxes, etc. Since the action goes against one of the property's community policies, the parent and child are instructed that if the community service is not done, the family can be asked to move. Community service hours can be filled by helping to file in the office, picking up the grounds, sweeping breezeways, and other similar activities.
Context
The apartment community primarily serves low-income single young mothers. It has 157 apartment units. It was purchased by Dallas Homes, Inc., in February 1997.
When the program started in June 1997, the property had two to three children at least three days a week coming to the office for community service. Now, having a child serve because of vandalism is a rare occurrence. Through the four years since the program was started, they have had approximately 50 children do some community service for vandalism to the property.
Outcome
The children received some mentoring and attention from the staff. The staff forged relationships with the children, and the children began to care about the community. You can hear one child tell another, "You need to pick up that gum wrapper. You live here and you need to care what your yard looks like."
Evidence
When the property was purchased in February 1997, four groundskeepers would collect from 10-20 bags of trash twice a day. Now one groundkeeper may collect two bags of trash total during the day.
Posted On
November 14, 2001For More Information
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