Using a Racial Equity Toolkit in Data Analysis

Mission and Responsibilities The mission of the Department of Licenses & Inspections (L&I) is to enforce the safe and lawful construction and use of buildings in accordance with the city’s Building, Fire, Property Maintenance, and Zoning Codes. L&I’s Operations Division inspects the interior and exterior of residential and commercial properties. Inspections are done on both a complaint (service request) and programmatic basis. In 2016, the Division had 50 inspectors. In calendar year 2016, Operations received 37,576 service requests and conducted 105,349 inspections. Service requests come to L&I through 311, internal referrals, and direct calls and are assigned directly to inspectors based on the property location. Inspectors are assigned to one of five district offices (North, South, East, West, and Central) and then to a varying number of census tracts within their District.

Scope of Data Analysis L&I examined 16,668 “Maintenance Residential” (MR) and 4,723 Vacant House (VH) service requests received in calendar year 2016. MR service requests – interior (submitted by rental property tenants) or exterior maintenance issues. Examples: leaking roof, overgrown lawn, plumbing or electrical issues, non-functioning doors and windows, or unsanitary conditions. VH service requests – properties that appear to be vacant, with varying degrees of maintenance issues. There is a ‘service level agreement’ (SLA) of 20 business days for all MR and VH requests, meaning that means inspectors are under obligation to answer every request within 20 business days of the initial call.

Goal of Data Analysis Determine the average response time to MR and VH service requests in each of the city’s 380 populated census tracts. Identify the census tracts with the longest average response time. Determine what factors may contribute to the longer response time in these census tracts, looking at five specific variables: (1) Race (2) Homeownership (3) Crime (4) Poverty (5) Service request and inspection volume

Methodologies For each of five variables, calculate average length of time inspectors took to log a “first action” (FA) on each service request within each census tract. Sort results from the census tracts with the longest response time (highest value) to those with the shortest response time (lowest value). Isolate census tracts in the top and bottom fifths of the results – the top fifth being those with longest response times and the bottom fifth being those with the shortest response time. There are 76 census tracts in each “fifth.” Determine the average response time for both the top fifth census tracts and the bottom fifth census tracts. Calculate the difference. Determine whether any differences within each variable are statistically significant. Control for any contextual causes.

Initial Findings Race – 3.7 day difference MR: 4.7 day difference. VH: 2.7 day difference. Homeownership – 1.9 day difference MR: 1.8 day difference. VH: 1.9 day difference. Crime – 4.4 day difference MR: 5.8 day difference. VH: 3 day difference . Poverty – 2.2 day difference MR: 2.1 day difference. VH: 2.2 day difference. Service Request Volume – 2.2 day difference MR: 3.1 day difference. VH: 1.2 day difference. On average, the census tracts that fell within the top fifth for each variable experienced a 2.9 day longer response time. On average, response time for all census tracts, including those in the top fifth, fell within the 20 day SLA.

Variable #1: Race Sorted census tracts by percentage of minority (non-white, non- Hispanic) residents. The top fifth had the highest minority population and the bottom fifth had the lowest minority population. MR: 4.7 day longer response time in census tracts with the highest minority population. VH: 2.7 day longer response time in census tracts with the highest minority population.

Variable #2: Homeownership Sorted census tracts by percentage of owner-occupied housing units (as self-reported by residents in the ACS). The top fifth had the highest percentage of owner-occupied units and the bottom fifth had the lowest percentage of owner-occupied units. MR: 1.8 day longer response time in census tracts with lowest percentage of owner-occupied units. VH: 1.9 day longer response time in census tracts with the lowest percentage of owner-occupied units.

Variable #3: Crime Rate Sorted census tracts by number of crime incidents per capita (data from the Philadelphia Police Department). The top fifth had the highest number of crime incidents and the bottom fifth had the lowest number of crime incidents. MR: 5.8 day longer response time in census tracts with the highest per capita crime rate. VH: 3 day longer response time in census tracts with the highest per capita crime rate.

Variable #4: Poverty Sorted census tracts by number of residents living below the poverty line (as determined by ACS). The top fifth had the highest number of residents living below the poverty line and the bottom fifth had the lowest number of residents living below the poverty line. MR: 1.5 day longer response time in census tracts with the highest number of non- white residents living below the poverty line. 2.6 day longer response time in census tracts with the highest number of white residents living below the poverty line. VH: 1.4 day longer response time in census tracts with the highest number of non-white residents living below the poverty line. 2.9 day longer response time in census tracts with the highest number of white residents living below the poverty line. Note: ACS provides poverty information in several different ways, but for the purposes of our analysis we used the fields ‘Below Poverty Level Percent White Only’ and ‘Below Poverty Level Percent Not White.’ We also combined females and males below the poverty line. Further analysis revealed that census tracts with the highest number of females of any race living below the poverty line had a longer response time than census tracts with the highest number of males of any race living below the poverty line.

Variable #5: Service Request Volume Sorted census tracts by number of service requests received in the year. Aggregated by L&I District to show differences in volume. MR: 3.1 day longer response time in census tracts with highest volume. VH: 1 day longer response time in census tracts with highest volume. District MR % of MR VH % of VH All % of All Central 606 3.64 72 1.52 678 3.17 East 4,629 27.77 1,323 28.01 5,952 27.82 North 5,461 32.76 1,665 35.25 7,126 33.31 South 1,522 9.13 339 7.18 1,861 8.70 West 4,450 26.70 1,324 28.03 5,774 26.99

Context: Inspector Workload Further analysis needed to put the findings in the context of L&I operations, including: Not all service requests created equal – some require significantly more time to investigate and coordination with occupants and other City agencies. Example: Rental properties and rooming/boarding houses (30% of MR service requests), predominantly in North and East Districts. Inspector workload – in addition to initial inspections from service requests, inspectors conduct roughly 68,000 reinspections annually. Volume varies widely and depends on external factors: compliance rates, time-sensitivity of inspections, enforcement actions needed (ex: cease operations), etc. District capacity – there are 50 inspectors to do 105,349 inspections. An inspector being out of work for any extended period of time can cause a significant disruption to service request responses and timely reinspections. For example,

Inspector Workload District Active # of Inspectors # of Assigned Inspectors # of Recommended Inspectors #of Service Requests % of Service Requests Service Requests Per Inspector Total # of Inspections % of Inspections Inspections Per Inspector Central 4 5 1,698 5% 425 5,132 1,283 East 10 15 20 10,591 28% 1,059 27,211 26% 2,721 North 13 12,345 33% 950 33,147 31% 2,550 South 3,636 10% 727 15,318 15% 3,064 West 9,306 25% 931 24,541 23% 2,454

Conclusions On average, L&I responds to service requests in all census tracts within the 20 business day SLA. Certain census tracts consistently see slightly longer response times across all variables – on average, 2.9 days. The nine census tracts with the longest response times fall within the top fifth for at least four of the five variables analyzed. Of these nine census tracts, six are in located in North District. Longer response time cannot be directly attributed to any one factor, so response times should continue to be analyzed across all variables.

Recommendations Use analysis to inform ongoing effort to realign District boundaries to accommodate two new District offices and 20 new inspectors in late 2017. Change existing procedures for periodic reviews of District SLA compliance and inspector workload for reassignment purposes to consider anticipated volume and other variables rather than geography or population alone. Create real-time data model to identify changes in response time in any census tracts. This will allow us to quickly correct workload imbalance that may be slowing response time. Conduct further detailed analysis of individual service request types to identify any trends indicating why they have slower average response times.