GREENSBORO, N.C. — Overgrown yards, unsecured structures, junked and abandoned cars. These kinds of issues make a lot of work for city code workers.
“We average 25,000 to 30,0000 inspections a year. From beginning to end, a housing case includes five to six inspections, nuisance yard cases can have three to four inspections until they’re done, and an abandoned vehicle can have two to three inspections. So, we do a lot of inspections for sure,” said Larry Roberts, City of Greensboro, Manager of Housing and Neighborhood Development.
But the Greensboro Code Compliance Department gets a lot of calls that aren't for them.
For example:
A semi parked in your neighborhood--- that's parking enforcement, police
If you’re building a new house-- that's engineering.
You see water leaking down the street--- that's the water department.
Which is why the city is asking you to join them at a Code Academy meeting. It's to help educate city residents on who to call when something is wrong.
GREENSBORO CODE ACADEMY MEETINGS
Thursday, November 9, 2023
11 a.m. at Glenwood Rec Center
6:30 pm at Brown Rec Center
When it comes to all the cases code compliance works, the largest number of active cases right now--- are housing cases. A big part of the meeting will focus on housing issues and what you should know when you call about landlord code issues.
“People will often call us and they'll have one violation, but they need to have up to 6 violations to start a case. So, if you call us out there and you just have one outlet on the wall that's not working, we can’t necessarily start a case,” said Roberts.
If you don't have enough issues to start a case, your best bet is to put your requests for repair in writing to your landlord. This can be email, text, or a letter sent by mail. This starts a paper trail to help hold them accountable.