Hartford Land Bank conducting survey of city’s blighted properties

HARTFORD — The Hartford Land Bank, the city’s planned tool for buying and cleaning up blighted buildings, is conducting a citywide survey of deteriorating, vacant and tax-delinquent properties.

The survey and market analysis will inform the Land Bank as it develops its strategy for revitalizing city neighborhoods. By the summer, the bank will start acquiring, fixing up and selling properties with $5 million in state funds.

This first step, though, is supported by a $175,000 grant from the Hartford Foundation for Public Giving. The survey, to be completed in February, will build on the work of the city’s 2-year-old blight remediation team, which has contributed to the improvement of about 162 properties since 2016.

“Our blight team has been working closely with Neighborhood Revitalization Zones to rehabilitate targeted properties across Hartford and we’ve made important progress, but we have a lot more to do,” Mayor Luke Bronin said Wednesday.

About 20 members of Hartford Youth Service Corps. are helping to carry out the survey, according to Laura Settlemyer, chairperson of the lank bank and director of blight remediation.

Her team puts pressure on negligent landlords and helps match homeowners in need to community nonprofits that can help with things like broken windows, sagging porches and overgrown yards.

The land bank would give the city another option — to hold and manage properties, particularly those that have been off the tax rolls for years.

The entity has an initial board of directors made up of organizations like Hartford LISC (Local Initiatives Support Corporation), Hartford Community Loan Fund, NINA (Northside Institutions Neighborhood Alliance) and SINA (Southside Institutions Neighborhood Alliance).

The land bank has not hired staff, and its nonprofit status has also been delayed by the partial government shutdown, which began Dec. 22.