Vacant and Distressed Property and Community Health and Safety April Hirsh Urban Center on Urban Poverty and Community Development

Center on Urban Poverty and Community Development Research and data innovations to strengthen communities and families

Research Products Access all: http://msass.case.edu/new-study-finds-vacancies-overlap-with-crime- and-lead-exposure/ Full Report- includes detailed methodology, literature review Online report- interactive, shortened, excludes detailed methods, aimed at policy makers Interactive map- view data/map layers, download data

Methods- TCI City-wide Survey Start with 2015 TCI city-wide (Cleveland) vacancy and condition survey Each property in the city of Cleveland is observed, surveyers measured vacancy, graded condition, measured a number of other factors Going to provide a visual example of our methods. Orange dots represent properties surveyed. Blue dots represent vacant properties.

Optimized Hot Spot Analysis We used optimized hot spot analysis to help answer our questions about the relationship between vacancy, property condition, crime, and lead exposure. Going to provide a visual example of our methods. Orange dots represent properties surveyed. Blue dots represent vacant properties.

Optimized Hot Spot Analysis We used hot spot analysis to find geographic concentrations, or clusters, of vacancy, condition, crime and lead exposure. The tool helps find clusters by calculating the distance between points, in this example, blue points, and comparing it to the overall distance in the study area. Finding hot spots- where there are clusters of points, and cold spots, where there are absences of points.

Methods- Tabular Comparison

Methods- Time Line Observed lead exposure Observed crime incidents Observed vacancy and condition January 2015 December 2015 June 2015 October 2015

Data Sources Property vacancy and condition- Western Reserve Land Conservancy Crime incidents- address level incidents from Cleveland Department of Public Safety Lead exposure- elevated blood lead level (5 mg/dL or greater) in children under 6, address level, from Ohio Department of Health* *Lead data provided by the Ohio Department of Health. This should not be considered an endorsement of this study or these conclusions by the ODH.

Within the scope Beyond the scope Spatial patterns of vacancy, distress, crime, and lead exposure Hot spots, cold spots Tabular overlap of crime and lead exposure with vacancy and distress Character and nature or the relationship Anything beyond the time point of the study

Findings Are also vacancy hot spots 61.7% of EBLL hot spots 65.4% of all violent crime hot spots 83.2 % of homicide hot spots 76.2% of aggravated assault hot spots 75% of weapons violations hot spots Are also vacancy hot spots

Expectation: Co-occurance increases with hot spots of vacant, distressed properties

Are vacant ABC hot spots 61.9% of EBLL hot spots 64.2% of violent crime hot spots 82.0% of homicide hot spots 77.7% of weapons violations hot spots 74.1% of aggravated assault hot spots 62.9% of EBLL hot spots 60.3% of all violent crime hot spots 78.7% of homicide hot spots 63.1% of weapons violations hot spots 69.2% of aggravated assault hot spots Are vacant DF hot spots Are vacant ABC hot spots

Conclusions Vacancy is heavily concentrated on the east side Hot spots of violent crime are often also hot spots of vacant properties Spatial patterns show merit in considering characteristics of the physical environment in health and safety programs and targeting

Center on Urban Poverty and Community Development Contact April Hirsh Urban Center on Urban Poverty and Community Development april.urban@case.edu 216-368-3390