Fighting blight by fixing up homes could bring down Philly gun violence, new study shows



Replacing broken windows, picking up garbage, and pulling weeds around abandoned houses in Philadelphia could lead to a drop in gun crime in those areas, according to a new study from the University of Pennsylvania and Columbia University.

Researchers placed 258 abandoned Philadelphia houses into three study groups. One third of the houses received the full intervention — fixing broken windows, picking up trash, and weeding — while a third received trash pickup and weeding only and a third received no maintenance.

After three years of study, researchers found that blocks around the homes that got the full intervention saw a 13% drop in gun assaults compared to nearby blocks. The blocks around homes that only received trash cleanup and weeding showed no drop in gun violence.
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