The Statewide Blight Task Force has regularly discussed the importance of property maintenance code enforcement as a tool in mitigating and preventing blight. Municipalities, however, often face challenges with code enforcement particularly due to limited resources.

For this reason, I am reintroducing legislation (HB 255 from 2023-24) that would establish a program for the purposes of providing grants to municipalities to establish code enforcement programs and to hire code enforcement personnel to help address blighted property conditions.

The program would be administered by the Department of Community and Economic Development (DCED). Under the bill, DCED would issue grants on a competitive basis based on the following criteria:
(1) Whether the municipality demonstrates a financial need for the grants.
(2) The overall condition of the real property within the municipality.
(3) Whether the municipality has an intergovernmental cooperation agreement with another jurisdiction for joint codes enforcement.

A municipality obtaining a grant must provide matching funds equal to the amount of the state grant. In addition, a municipality may only receive this grant for 3 consecutive years.

Please join me by cosponsoring this important initiative.

Statutes/Laws affected:
Printer's No. 0217: P.L.1672, No.135