Community advocates are urging San Diego city officials to do more to clean-up neighborhoods full of foreclosed properties, including fining banks that own neglected properties. And a new poll shows a majority of residents think fines are a good solution.
The Center on Policy Initiatives suggests that a stiff, $1,000 per day penalty on a bank that fails to maintain foreclosed properties will keep neighborhoods from falling into disrepair.
The center commissioned a poll that questioned 600 potential voters by phone. The survey found an overwhelming majority back the idea. The center's executive director Clair Crawford says the idea could reverse blight linked to unmaintained properties.
"We've received numerous reports from the community where the property's not maintained," she said. "There's overgrown lawns. There's trash. Even reports from some police officers that you see drug dealing and squatting in homes and neighborhoods."
Crawford said fining banks works an hundreds of cities have already passed similar measures including Chula Vista.
