Ga. County Uses Inmates to Clean Up Homes in Foreclosure
A county in Georgia is using inmates to clean up the yards of properties in foreclosure in a program that may be one of the first of its kind.
Inmates in Clayton County have so far cleaned up 60 out of 390 homes, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports. The county bills the property owner a fee for the work that is set by a fee schedule and attached to the owner’s tax bill.
For one recent clean up, the bill was $1,000. The home in the Chase Woods subdivision had disappeared behind four-foot-high weeds and grass. After the prison crew finished its work, the house was transformed from an eyesore to a neighborhood showpiece, the story says.
A professor at Georgia Tech’s school of city and regional planning told the Journal-Constitution that foreclosures can bring down the values of surrounding properties, Several different approaches are being tried to combat the problem, he said. Cleveland requires foreclosed properties to be securely boarded up, for example, while Chicago requires metal security.
He questions, however, whether inmates should be used to do work on private properties rather than public land.
