Birmingham will ask lawmakers in 2027 for a blight tax, a registry of neglected property, a housing trust fund and wider land bank powers. Here is the full list.

The Birmingham City Council has approved the city’s wish list for the Alabama Legislature’s 2027 regular session. The headline items are a tax on neglected property and a city housing trust fund.

The city announced the vote Wednesday in a release from the Mayor’s Office. Mayor Randall Woodfin backs the agenda. None of it takes effect on the council’s say-so. Each item needs a bill passed in Montgomery, because it would give the city powers it does not have under state law.

What Birmingham is asking for

The city’s release lists seven main priorities:

  • Birmingham Housing Trust Fund: permission to set up a dedicated fund to build and preserve safe, affordable housing
  • Blight tax and property registration: a registry for blighted properties, and extra tax assessments on properties that stay neglected
  • Alabama Land Bank Act amendment: wider powers for local land banks to acquire tax-delinquent property and put vacant lots back to use
  • Nuisance and blight abatement: stronger powers to remove abandoned debris, deal with overgrown lots and act against repeat nuisance properties
  • Code enforcement: a court process for administrative inspection warrants, so city inspectors can check suspected code violations
  • Historic tax credit renewal: an extension of Alabama’s Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credit
  • Mental health and homelessness: a coordinated response to behavioral health, homelessness and crisis calls, with more money for treatment and outreach

The release also names smaller items. They cover municipal grant programs, infrastructure liability, tree inventory and maintenance, and licensing and training for security staff at businesses with alcohol licenses.

What the mayor said

“When we remove blight, we make our neighborhoods safer, and safer neighborhoods are the foundation for economic growth,” Woodfin said in the release.

He said the city’s partnership with the Jefferson County legislative delegation “will be critical to moving these priorities forward.”

The release does not give a dollar figure for the trust fund or a rate for the blight assessment. Those would be set in the bills themselves, if lawmakers take them up.

What it means for you

If you own property in Birmingham and keep it up, the blight items are aimed at someone else: the release describes them as tools against “negligent property owners.” If you own a vacant or neglected lot, a registry and an added assessment could reach you, but only after lawmakers pass enabling bills and the city writes its own rules. Our property taxes guide explains how Birmingham’s current bills are set.

If a neglected house or overgrown lot is near you now, the city’s existing code enforcement route still applies. Our who to call at City Hall page has the numbers, and building permits and zoning covers the permit side.

Your state senator and representatives in the Jefferson County delegation will vote on any of these bills. That is the place to weigh in before the session opens.