Broken Windows

Broken windows can have consequences for even the strongest of neighborhoods

SEATTLE, WASHINGTON - Earlier this year, James Q. Wilson passed away in Boston at the age of 80. His was not exactly a household name.

Professionally, he spent most of his life in academia, holding distinguished positions at Harvard, UCLA and, most recently, Pepperdine. Academics, of course, aren't usually known for plain speaking. But Wilson was, most notably in a 1982 Atlantic Monthly article co-authored with George L. Kelling. Entitled "Broken Windows," it argued that small things, like a broken window, can have big and bad consequences for even the strongest of neighborhoods.

"Window-breaking does not necessarily occur on a large scale because some areas are inhabited by determined window-breakers whereas others are populated by window-lovers," they wrote. "Rather one unrepaired broken window is a signal that no one cares, and so breaking more windows costs nothing." Soon enough, one broken window leads to another and, almost certainly, another after that. Break enough windows and you can break a neighborhood.

Forty years later and still pretty deep in a Great Recession, visit many a residential number and you'll find that forlorn, foreclosed properties now outnumber stop signs and fire hydrants. The longer those properties stay empty, the less likely they'll be maintained and, Wilson and Kelling would warn, the faster they'll threaten the long-term vitality of those neighborhoods.

We've heeded their warning. Both President Bush and President Obama have prevailed upon the Congress to establish the Neighborhood Stabilization Program which has provided Federal funds - $27.1 million in Washington state - to local governments to reclaim, rehab and re-sell abandoned or blighted properties, giving hard-hit neighborhoods, said Vice President Biden, a "fresh start."

It's working. In Tacoma a Habitat for Humanity affiliate used NSP funds to buy an abandoned house that might have been a model for "eyesores" anywhere, asked the Tacoma Fire Department to use it for a "practice burn" and now has a vacant parcel where it plans to build up to 13 homes. NeighborWorks of Grays Harbor County has worked with the adjacent cities of Hoquiam and Aberdeen to acquire ten housing units, four of which they have given to the Coastal Community Action Council to provide permanent, affordable housing to low-income families and working with Habitat to redevelop and re-sell the rest.

Lakewood has used NSP funds to tear down or take over dilapidated, tax-delinquent houses that were being used as meth labs. Kelso has demolished a ramshackle building and clear vehicles from an abandoned wrecking lot on the north side of town. Bellingham and Seattle and Yakima, NSP funds have been used to acquire and finish all or parts of new subdivisions that broke ground in the boom years but then went bust. Spokane has used NSP funds to transform foreclosed and forlorn lots into community gardens and to buy and, with help from Americorps and YouthBuild, refurbish the abandoned, but historic Rose-Cly-Cecil Apartments.

NSP has other benefits. It offers work to skilled trades people, maybe the profession hardest hit by the Great Recession. And the proceeds from the sale of a reclaimed, re-sold NSP house can be used to reclaim and rehab still more properties.

But probably most important are the more than 370 properties and parcels NSP has helped communities across Washington reclaim. That's a lot of "broken windows" fixed, a lot of broken neighborhoods prevented and a lot of "fresh starts" in securing strong foundation for the places we call home. Wilson and Kelling sounded a warning. Fortunately, we've not turned a deaf ear.

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