The Genesee County Land Bank’s Clean & Green program, funded by the Ruth Mott Foundation, is engaging the community in the transformation of vacant properties, an effort that has been linked to a notable reduction in crime in those area.

Clean & Green supports community-based groups and organizations in maintaining and beautifying vacant properties owned by Land Bank.

Each year, Land Bank selects groups through a competitive application process. They must already be an established group or organization with a strong connection to the area they will be working in, have experience in property maintenance and have the tools and equipment required to do the job.

Each group is required to maintain at least 25 properties every three weeks, while some maintain as many as 130. The groups receive a stipend, the value of which depends on the number of properties the group maintains but equates to about $20 per property.

The groups are encouraged to use the stipend to employ local youth, as youth engagement is a program priority. In 2018, roughly 700 of the 1,100 residents in the Clean & Green program were youth.

Clean & Green groups maintained more than 3,700 vacant Flint properties in 2018.

In addition to making the streets of Flint cleaner and more attractive, the program makes them safer, too.

In a 2018 study of the program, University of Michigan researchers found that streets with vacant lots maintained through the Clean & Green program had about 40 percent fewer assaults and violent crimes than streets with vacant and unmaintained lots.

“The extent of the findings was very, very encouraging,” said lead researcher Justin Heinze, an assistant professor at the U-M School of Public Health in a press release.

Heinze said the results of the study illustrate that a large financial investment is not required to have an impact on reducing crime, but community engagement is required.

The Download