Getting aggressive about code enforcement and blight removal has become a hallmark of the city’s
efforts to strengthen Freeport neighborhoods and improve public safety.

Freeport Mayor Jodi Miller says now is not the time to ease up on those efforts. The two-term mayor
hopes to continue tackling the issue of blight in Freeport over the next four years.
“Over the past four years we’ve gotten aggressive about building and property code enforcement,” says
Mayor Miller. “We adopted some new strategies for code enforcement and for controlling troubled
properties when they became available to purchase on the county’s tax sale. Both approaches have led
to a lot more properties being demolished and removed from our neighborhoods.”
 

Last year alone the city demolished over 51 blighted properties in Freeport—a record. Mayor Miller
attributes the city to being more diligent and unwavering in their commitment to removing dangerous
and unsafe properties in Freeport.
“Removing a dangerous building from our neighborhoods is a lot easier when you have legal control or
ownership of that property,” says Mayor Miller. “Purchasing a property through the tax sales and then
demolishing unsafe structures on that property actually saves us time, money, and resources in the
end.” Miller says the removal of blight in neighborhoods is part of the city’s overall plan to improve public
safety and strengthening economically distressed neighborhoods.
 

“Over the next four years, we will be exploring how we can activate some of these now empty lots,”
says Mayor Miller. “We are currently looking at successful infill housing models in other cities and
gauging what strategies for developing new, affordable housing on these properties might work in
Freeport.”