Reason? Abandoned properties acquired by the government and improved upon could be a major way to reduce crime rate in the state and in all urban cities in the country.
As far back as 2012, Lagos officials, including the state legislature had one time or the other, decried the spate of abandoned properties in the city, becoming havens for criminals. This tendency was not limited to Lagos, but to some other urban centres, where industrial activities have stimulated rural-urban migration.
But according to the group’s report on the effects of abandoned building remediation on changes in surrounding crime, it was found that low-cost improvements such as new windows and doors may be effective in deterring criminal activity.
The study, titled: “Vacant and abandoned buildings pose significant challenges to the health and safety of communities,” said Michael T. Rains, Director of the Forest Service’s Northern Research Station and the Forest Products Laboratory.
Forest Service research is examining all aspects of the urban ecosystem and developing knowledge and tools that cities can use to promote health and sustainability.
Enacted in 2011, the Doors and Windows Ordinance requires landowners to have functional doors and windows on abandoned buildings located on blocks that are more than 80 percent occupied unless they have applied for a renovation permit for improvements beyond replacing windows and doors.
Researchers compared differences in incidents of crime for buildings that were either improved through the ordinance or were permitted for renovation with incidents of crime at randomly matched control buildings that were not remediated or permitted for renovation.
In areas around buildings in which functional doors and windows were installed, there were an estimated eight fewer assaults, 10 fewer gun assaults and five fewer nuisance crimes over a 2-year period.
“Citywide, we found significant reductions in total crimes, assaults, gun assaults, robberies and nuisance crimes associated with ordinance compliance,” said Michelle Kondo, a research hydrologist with the Northern Research Station’s Philadelphia Field Station. “This could be the ‘broken windows theory’ in action, with new doors and windows and a newly cleaned building facade signaling to potential offenders that a property is occupied and crime is not tolerated.”
Although, they agreed that additional research is needed to determine whether other factors may have influenced the decrease in crime around abandoned buildings. The Doors and Windows Ordinance applies only to buildings on blocks that are 80 percent occupied; the effect of installing functional doors and windows may be less in location has less human occupation.
Geographical variation in policing practices, which change over time, may also influence crime occurrences.
The Lagos State House of Assembly, three years ago, called on the executive arm of the government to take over ownership of all abandoned properties in the state within one month if owners of such properties do not act.
Such properties include abandoned houses, personal effects and even vehicles.
The lawmakers asked the government to serve letters of intent to confiscate the properties to their owners after which such properties would be taken over for public use.
The resolution was made after some of them raised alarm over the rising criminal activities in the state with the lawmakers noting that most of these criminals, miscreants and hoodlums use such abandoned properties as their hideout.
The then Chief Whip of the House, Dr. Rasaq Balogun, who was the prime mover of the motion under Matter of Urgent Public Importance, expressed dismay over the dangerous security threat such properties are causing residents of the state.
The lawmaker listed some properties located at Adetola Street, Coker Gaud in Surulere, abandoned Federal Secretariat complex, Ikoyi, several others as a place where action was needed, saying that unoccupied properties were causing serious security problems in those areas, adding “miscreants have been using the building as an avenue to smoke Indian hemp and carry out nefarious activities.”
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Lawmakers who contributed to the issue were of the opinion that penalties should not only be awarded against abandonment of properties and their offenders but also that neglected vehicles should also be evacuated from the streets of Lagos.
Lawmakers reminded the House that it took the State government serious effort to pull down the Bobby Benson edifice at Onipanu area of the state, which had been abandoned for several years.
At the wake of this apprehension, the executive arm of government, represented by the Ministry for Physical Planning and Urban Development, took up the challenge by coming out to announce that all abandoned properties within the landmass of Lagos State may be taken over by the state government, a step to forestall security threats milling round the metropolis.
The immediate past Commissioner in charge of the ministry, Mr. Olutoyin Ayinde, a Town Planner, during the inspection tour to assess the distressed and properties that are perceived as contravening government regulations at that time, said such places often become a haven for miscreants, armed robbers, destitute and sometimes traders who endanger their lives in the face of building collapse.
According to Ayinde, the state government in its continued effort to keep Lagos safe is set to seize and demolish such structures especially those that have been abandoned for up to five years. Apart from such structures being used by criminals and destitute, government is always mindful of the dangers inherent in building collapses, thus, not ready to give room for such unfortunate development.
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