1–5 As a public health issue, the costs of firearm violence in the United States are large and extend beyond the loss of life and emotional burden for affected individuals and families. The rate of firearm violence in the United States is estimated to be larger than that in any other developed nation, and the majority of fatal violence committed in the United States involves firearms. Urban blight remediation programs can be cost-beneficial strategies that significantly and sustainably reduce firearm violence. Abandoned buildings and vacant lots are blighted structures seen daily by urban residents that may create physical opportunities for violence by sheltering illegal activity and illegal firearms. Respectively, taxpayer and societal returns on investment for the prevention of firearm violence were $5 and $79 for every dollar spent on abandoned building remediation and $26 and $333 for every dollar spent on vacant lot remediation.Ĭonclusions. Neither program significantly affected nonfirearm violence. We adjusted before–after percent changes and returns on investment in treated versus control groups for sociodemographic factors. We performed quasi-experimental analyses of the impacts and economic returns on investment of urban blight remediation programs involving 5112 abandoned buildings and vacant lots on the occurrence of firearm and nonfirearm violence in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, from 1999 to 2013. To determine if blight remediation of abandoned buildings and vacant lots can be a cost-beneficial solution to firearm violence in US cities.
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