Every year, the City of Memphis has to respond to numerous blighted properties. To help mitigate the problem, many organizations are teaming up to help owners and communities get the blighted properties revitalized and fixed.
This week on WKNO-TV's Behind the Headlines, president and CEO of The Works, Roshun Austin, president of Neighborhood Preservation Steve Barlow, executive director of Knowledge Quest, Marlon Foster, and Daily Memphian reporter Bill Dries join host Eric Barnes to discuss neighborhood revitalization in Memphis.
For Austin, tackling blight helps make a community marketable to new business and development.
Foster explains the various ways in which properties become blighted, such as someone inheriting a home that they don't want to sell but can't take care of.
There are several means of making sure a structure or land is repaired or brought back up to code, Barlow says, including using the law and, last case scenario, bringing the owners of the property to court.
Additionally, Austin, Foster and Barlow discuss exactly how the organizations they work for and the City of Memphis are making strides to address blight and aid communities in getting rid of blighted structures and land.
