Jackson, MS

Housing, Built environment  | 2025

Documenting vacancy and property conditions to prioritize code enforcement and home repair.

Residents are West Jackson’s biggest asset. But neighborhoods in this section of the city have experienced decades of disinvestment, leading to hyper-vacancy and deep property deterioration. Through this project, West Jackson residents will gather and analyze neighborhood-level data to advocate for more investment, changes to code enforcement practices, and increased resources for home repair. The City of Jackson uses code enforcement to ticket the worst-condition properties, rather than as a tool to mitigate early decline, which often leads to property tax forfeiture and transfer of property to the state. Residential vacancy is at 20 percent, but the extent and amount of deterioration—including in tax-foreclosed properties controlled by the State of Mississippi—are not well understood by city officials.

Center for Community Progress and West Jackson organization Revive and Restore Community Corporation are partnering to identify and prioritize properties for intervention. The project team will conduct a windshield survey to document occupancy and exterior property conditions, such as illegal dumping and overgrown lots, across 9,500 parcels in West Jackson. A resident sentiment survey will ask locals about their neighborhood outlook, why they have remained invested, and what would keep them invested in the future. Residents will participate in the design of the survey instruments, data collection, and analysis and lead dissemination of the survey results with local partners.  

The City of Jackson has recently increased staff capacity for its Code Services Office and will be able to use these data to take a community-focused approach. The Center for Community Progress and Revive and Restore Community Corporation will help residents prioritize properties for code enforcement and support homeowners in addressing unsafe conditions. The project team hopes that the effort will also serve as a demonstration for a resident-led citywide parcel survey. The team aims to improve neighborhood land and housing conditions in West Jackson by encouraging earlier city action on deteriorating properties, promoting repair rather than a singular focus on demolition.