NFPA Journal - November/December 2012 - (Page 15)
federal grants to install home fire sprinklers in low- and moderate-income homes, as well as to create a city-run grant program to retrofit sprinklers in historic downtown businesses. I’m not aware of any other community that has taken this approach, but it has also become clear to me that sprinkler advocates around the country need to explore increasingly creative ways to integrate fire sprinklers into their communities. Mesa’s sprinkler initiatives provide a unique case study on how the fire service can apply federal grant dollars to improve public safety while achieving the broad national objectives of these grant programs: to eliminate blight and meet community development needs.
Neighborhood Stabilization Program
na’s home. A lapse in her insurance policy meant she could not afford to rebuild. The house sat boarded up and vacant for more than two and a half years, a blight on the neighborhood. The property qualified for NSP
IT HAS BECOME CLEAR TO ME that sprinkler advocates around the country need to explore increasingly creative ways to integrate fire sprinklers into their communities.
because it was vacant and because the homeowner met other financial requirements of the program. Mesa acquired a 25 percent interest in the house and rebuilt it from scratch, with the inclusion of home fire sprinklers. I pushed strongly for Mesa to install home fire sprinklers in its NSP projects, and since 2009, the program has allowed Mesa to install fire sprinklers in 29 single-family and 29 multifamily homes. That work has provided not only a safe living environment for residents, but also much-needed jobs in the construction industry. The homebuilding industry was one of the hardest-hit business sectors in Arizona during the Great Recession, with the state losing 131,000 construction jobs in 2009 alone. During that year, though, contractors reported that 95 jobs were saved or created thanks to NSP fire sprinkler retrofits. Cooperation between the city and state agencies has helped facilitate the installation of sprinklers. Three of the homes that received fire sprinkler retrofits were being restored to their historical character following the guidelines of the Arizona State Historic Preservation Office (SHPO), and nearly half of the projects were considered culturally or architecturally significant to the development of Mesa. The city and SHPO entered into a programmatic agreement that created a streamlined historical review process, which resulted in a quick turnaround for approval of NSP-funded activities, including fire sprinkler installations. SHPO has used this process as a model for other cities on how to manage an NSP program.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development created the Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP) to help mitigate the impact of the housing foreclosure crisis. Mesa, with a population of about 447,000, is part of the Greater Phoenix area, and some of our neighborhoods were devastated by some of the highest rates of foreclosure in Arizona, which, as a state, had some of the highest rates in the entire country. Mesa received more than $9.6 million to operate the original NSP program in the 85204 zip code. That target area is within the city’s low-to-moderate income census tracts and was chosen due to the high number of foreclosures, code violations, and crime problems. The area also has among the highest incidence of fire in the city. Mesa uses NSP funding to purchase and rehabilitate single-family homes and multifamily rental properties to stabilize neighborhoods affected by high vacancies. Once rehabilitated, the homes are sold to eligible buyers. The city’s affordable rents policy requires that no fewer than 25 percent of the rental units be leased to very-lowincome persons at affordable rates. NSP funding provided a perfect venue to tout the benefits and affordability of home fire sprinklers, and one house rehabilitated by the city illustrated this particularly well. On April 7, 2007, a propane grill on the back patio ignited a fire that gutted Yvonne Moli-
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2012 NFPA JOURNAL
15
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of NFPA Journal - November/December 2012
NFPA Journal - November/December 2012
Contents
First Word
In a Flash
Perspectives
Firewatch
Research
Heads Up
Structural Ops
In Compliance
Buzzwords
Outreach
Electrical Safety
Wildfire Watch
Past + Present
Easy Being Green?
Pressure Points
2011 Large-Loss Fires
2011 Firefighter Injuries
Section Spotlight
What’s Hot
Looking Back
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