House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer is warning D.C. officials that using artificial intelligence to identify vacant properties or homes in disrepair could put property owners on a fast track to fines and foreclosure.
City officials plan to use AI to police code violations. Under a new plan, panoramic camera-equipped cars — the same kind that capture street-view images for online maps — would scan homes across the city, and AI would flag vacant or rundown properties.
The plan would surveil homes to determine if they are vacant and subject to external maintenance violations, potentially replacing the fieldwork of 100,000 inspections, according to the D.C. Department of Buildings.
Mr. Comer, Kentucky Republican, said Thursday in a letter to department Director Brian J. Hanlon that such a plan could subject property owners to excessive fines, tax debt and foreclosure.
Violations include excessive weeds, accumulated trash, rodent infestation and unsanitary conditions. Fines, depending on the severity of the infraction, range from $64 to more than $12,700 for a first offense.
Mr. Comer expressed concern that the initiative could be used to “put more property owners on the path to foreclosure for the ultimate purpose of raising revenue by declaring a property vacant or levying excessive external property maintenance violation infractions.”
The District has one of the highest vacant property taxes in the U.S., at $5 per $100 of assessed value. There are about 4,500 vacant properties in the District.
The Department of Buildings says its main goal is to bring vacant buildings into productive use, leveraging high property taxes on empty structures to incentivize owners to return vacant and blighted buildings to active use.
The department is in discussions with multiple providers and will look for other areas where similar tools may be useful, according to its Strategic Enforcement Plan.
Mr. Comer’s letter asks the department to brief his committee’s staff about the surveillance providers it is in talks with, the number of properties the technology might flag as vacant, and the means owners have to contest a vacancy or violation finding.
This is Mr. Comer’s second letter to D.C. officials this year about housing policy. In June, he wrote to D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson alleging the District’s practice of seizing home equity in tax foreclosures was unconstitutional.
Mr. Mendelson, at-large Democrat, said the council intends to pass legislation addressing the issue.
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