How to Use this Guide
This guide brings together the tools, resources, processes, and best practices needed to understand vacant property and take action. Whether you're learning about the issue for the first time or actively working to strengthen your neighborhood, you'll find practical information to help navigate every step of the process.
This guide is designed to help a wide range of people understand and address vacant property in the City of St. Louis. You don't need to read it from beginning to end—explore the sections that are most relevant to your goals.
This guide is designed to help a wide range of people understand and address vacant property in the City of St. Louis. You don't need to read it from beginning to end—explore the sections that are most relevant to your goals.
Introduction to The Guide
The City of St. Louis has a serious vacant property challenge. More details are on this map and in From Policy to Progress: A Ten-Year Strategy to Reduce Vacancy in the City of St. Louis (2025), St. Louis Land Bank Assessment: Final Report (2017) and Developing a Shared Vision and Strategies to Address Vacancy and Abandonment in the City of St. Louis (2016).
Two other important resources for understanding the challenge are the Center for Community Progress and the Strategic Code Enforcement Management Academy.
Vacant properties negatively impact neighborhoods by
Vacant properties also strain the City budget due to
In short, vacancy erodes public health and safety, increases costs for local government, negatively impacts neighborhoods, and exacerbates market distortions and failures. Worst of all, vacancy catalyzes more vacancy, meaning that a small problem can quickly spread into a much larger one. And its impacts are not evenly distributed–those most directly affected are lower-income residents and historically marginalized neighborhoods.
Some factors that have contributed to the vacancy challenge include
Reducing the negative impact of vacancy is like a complex puzzle, requiring coordination and collaboration among the public sector, private stakeholders, and neighborhood leaders to achieve a shared vision.
This Guide is intended to help with that coordination and collaboration. It updates and expands upon information originally provided in A Guide to Understanding and Addressing Vacant Property in the City of St. Louis (2018). Significant progress has been made since the original Guide was published in 2018, and many of the next steps suggested in the original Guide have been taken. Still, there is much more work to be done, and this updated Guide is intended to continue the forward momentum.
Sources
Links in the body of this Guide serve both as source references and as an aid to the reader.
Two other important resources for understanding the challenge are the Center for Community Progress and the Strategic Code Enforcement Management Academy.
Vacant properties negatively impact neighborhoods by
- decreasing property values for neighbors
- discouraging investment in the community
- decreasing tax revenues
- decreasing quality of life for residents and eroding community cohesion
- creating safety hazards
Vacant properties also strain the City budget due to
- cleaning up illegal dumping
- mowing services
- boarding up and demolishing dangerous properties
- responding to police and fire calls for service about arson, theft, and other crimes
- dealing with sanitation issues
- increased burdens on code inspectors
- lost tax revenue
In short, vacancy erodes public health and safety, increases costs for local government, negatively impacts neighborhoods, and exacerbates market distortions and failures. Worst of all, vacancy catalyzes more vacancy, meaning that a small problem can quickly spread into a much larger one. And its impacts are not evenly distributed–those most directly affected are lower-income residents and historically marginalized neighborhoods.
Some factors that have contributed to the vacancy challenge include
- population loss
- weak demand
- an aging housing stock
- urban sprawl
- historical private and public discriminatory practices and policies like blockbusting and redlining
- lack of access to financing for repairs
- increased insurance costs
- predatory or negligent investors
- legal issues such as fractured titles, slow-moving probate processes, and complex corporate ownership structures of real estate
Reducing the negative impact of vacancy is like a complex puzzle, requiring coordination and collaboration among the public sector, private stakeholders, and neighborhood leaders to achieve a shared vision.
This Guide is intended to help with that coordination and collaboration. It updates and expands upon information originally provided in A Guide to Understanding and Addressing Vacant Property in the City of St. Louis (2018). Significant progress has been made since the original Guide was published in 2018, and many of the next steps suggested in the original Guide have been taken. Still, there is much more work to be done, and this updated Guide is intended to continue the forward momentum.
Sources
Links in the body of this Guide serve both as source references and as an aid to the reader.
The System and Its Parts
|
This section answers "why does property become vacant?" and introduces the agencies, courts, organizations, and private partners involved in reducing and addressing vacancy, explains their roles, and shows how they interact throughout the process.
Explore sections: |
|
|
|
Legal LeversVacant property can be addressed through a variety of legal and regulatory tools. This section explains the processes, enforcement options, and legal actions available to encourage property maintenance and resolve problem properties.
Explore sections:
|
Reuse StrategiesThis section explores the tools, partnerships, and strategies that can help move properties from vacant to occupied.
Explore sections:
|
|
|
|
Prevention ToolsPreventing vacancy is just as important as addressing it. This section highlights programs and resources that help homeowners and families resolve challenges before a property becomes vacant.
Explore sections:
|
