Walltown up next for code team
City inspectors to go door to door in violations search

BY VIRGINIA BRIDGES vbridges@heraldsun.com; 419-6648

On Thursday, Walltown residents might notice people peering into old cars, examining house windows and noting peeling paint on exterior walls.

Residents whose houses meet city codes might not have much to worry about. But those who own substandard property in the neighborhood -- between Green Street near Duke University's East Campus and Northgate Mall -- may have reason for concern.

The city's Code Enforcement Team plans to begin its inspection of houses in Walltown at 8 a.m. Thursday.

The inspections began in February, when the city Department of Housing and Community Development sent two Code Enforcement Teams -- comprised of fire and housing inspectors, police officers, a zoning inspector and a public works employee -- into neighborhoods in search of substandard housing and city code violations.

The first neighborhoods served by the program were near N.C. Central University and Duke's East Campus, where there have been many complaints about substandard rental housing and student-occupied housing.

During the once-a-week inspections, the teams go door to door looking at the exterior of every house and knocking on doors with an offer to inspect the inside. When violations are found, the owner is notified with a letter and the property remains in the housing code system until the violations are fixed.

In addition to run-down housing, the team also looks for vacant cars, illegal dumping and other quality-of-life issues covered by city ordinances.

Reginald Goodson, associate director of the community improvement division in the housing department, said the teams already have completed inspections near East Campus, including Trinity Park and Trinity Heights, and they still are inspecting neighborhoods near NCCU.

The Herald-Sun requested the results of those inspections Friday, but housing department officials were unable to provide statistics about the number of violations that have been found and corrected.

Walltown is next on the inspections list, and Goodson said the teams are planning to take on North-East Central Durham after that. The 96-square-block area near downtown includes some of the city's most blighted and crime-plagued communities.

Estella Collins, who has lived in Walltown since 1966, said she thinks the city's attention to problems there will enhance the neighborhood association's own efforts.

"Well, you know we have a lot of slumlords," she said.

Collins said residents have been working with District 2 Partners Against Crime -- a group that works with police and city staff -- as well as other nonprofits to improve the area.

"If you drive through Walltown now, compared to where it was a few years ago, it is a lot better," she said.

Goodson said the inspections are creating extra work for the housing department, but they aren't stressing daily operations.

"We are getting a lot of voluntary compliance," he said.

And if people aren't home, the team makes a visual inspection of the outside of the house and follows up with an appointment if necessary, Goodson said.

"But the part that most people see in these older neighborhoods is the exterior part," Goodson said. "Removing those [code violations] will add a lot of revitalizing to these old inner-city neighborhoods."

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