Masters Thesis

Code Enforcement Deployment Today: Is it Strategic?

The purpose of this paper is to investigate what strategies are being used by cities to deploy code enforcement. While there is some literature on various aspects of code enforcement, there are no studies on current code enforcement deployment. That said, there is a well-documented history on the commencement of code enforcement and federal housing programs which have an intersectional relationship. Federal funding was made available to cities for the use of code enforcement and it was used as a means for cities to execute "slum" clearance and redevelopment. This study proposes to conduct mixed methods research to investigate current code practices and identify themes using both quantitative and qualitative research by administering a questionnaire, and conducting interviews and document analyses to identify how many cities, have a documented code enforcement policy implementation strategy and any strategies being used by cities to deploy code enforcement. This study will focus the study on a purposive sample of the 88 cities in Los Angeles County, with a sampling unit that consists of city leadership, specifically the mayor and council, city manager, community development manager, and the code enforcement manager for each city.

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