Jackhammers and bulldozers clatter at a downtown Cincinnati demolition site. Buildings and Inspections Supervisor Scott Ryan leads a group of young women and men through the noise and dust.
"Always make eye contact with a heavy equipment operator,” he says. “If you decide to move around them, make sure they see you first. We have to make sure we give them a clear distance."
The group is part of the city of Cincinnati's third Building Inspector Training Academy. Many have left unrelated fields to get a year's worth of paid training so they can become inspectors themselves.
They could fill a big gap. The International Code Commission creates the building codes most cities use. It projects more than half of the current building inspector workforce in the U.S. will retire in the next decade.
Emily Leber is one of Cincinnati’s trainees. She graduated from UC with a degree in marketing but quickly realized the field wasn't her niche. She says something about the code academy resonated with her.
"I grew up on a farm, and my dad would just draw up something he wanted to make and would build it in our backyard,” she says. “He'd be making chicken coops, greenhouses ... We actually fixed up a house when I was younger. All of that kind of gave me this background, and now I can apply that to my job."
In the past, candidates like Leber would have had a hard time getting into code enforcement.
The Ohio Chamber of Commerce's Board of Building Standards certification process requires three to five years of construction trades experience. But a few years ago, the state began allowing alternative certification for candidates who complete Cincinnati's intensive classroom and field training program.
Those who graduate the code academy still have to pass standardized exams to become entry-level inspectors. They just don't have to spend years in other parts of the building trades to get that chance.
The city says it's possibly the first in the nation to try this approach to filling vital public safety jobs such approving architectural plans, ensuring buildings are constructed in a safe and standard manner, and confirming that existing housing and other structures are in habitable condition.
A complex response to dangerous conditions
Peter Yi is a practicing architect and a professor at the University of Cincinnati. He says code enforcement dates back to the dangerous living conditions once found in dense city centers.
"In the 19th century, living conditions became so poor in many cities, including Cincinnati, that it sparked widespread reform movements that focused on regulating buildings to improve living conditions.”
Yi says since then, building codes have become highly complex.
You need well-trained inspectors to enforce those complicated rules. Finding them has been a struggle.
Cincinnati Buildings and Inspections Director Art Dahlberg says a few years ago, his department only had about half the inspectors it needed because of a shortage of construction tradespeople dating back to the Great Recession.
That slowed down approval of permits for new construction. It also sent the wrong message to owners of existing buildings who weren't maintaining their properties.
"The timeliness of you getting out there stretches out a lot,” Dahlberg says. “As a result, some of the entities that own or maintain property tend to view you as a paper tiger.”
Other cities have had similar inspector shortages. Some, including Cleveland, have even put cameras on municipal vehicles and trained AI to look for code violations on existing buildings.
A community-driven approach
Dahlberg says Cincinnati's program is almost the opposite. It aims to put people who grew up in city neighborhoods out into those communities to enhance trust in the process.
"As a part of this, we're greatly improving the diversity of our workforce so it's matching the community," he says. "To me, that's what is a huge success here."
That community-driven approach resonates with Mario Simpson, another academy student. He was a realtor for nine years and found himself wondering about living conditions and building safety as he showed houses to first-time homebuyers.
"Like, 'Hey, I'm questioning if this building is actually safe,'" he says. "'I know you have two kids with one on the way ... this house throws me off.' I could never understand why I'd get that feeling sometimes."
Cincinnati has struggled with substandard housing conditions – issues often documented by the city’s code inspectors.
Simpson says he's become a "code nerd" since entering the academy. It's about "being an advocate for other people in our city," he says.
Graduates at work
At a half-finished townhouse development on Cincinnati's East Side, a couple of recent code academy graduates are looking over construction progress.
Obadare Ajao and Gino Battistella finished the program last year and are now certified code inspectors for the city.
They chat as they look over gusset plates and other details in the interior of a unit. Both say the academy process was hard – they spent five or six days each week studying for certification tests.
"The code books are extensive, they're thick, they're complicated," Battistella says. "It was intense, but awfully fun."
Battistella was previously a construction project manager, so he knew his way around a building site. Ajao didn't have trades experience, but is knowledgeable about real estate.
Both say their work as inspectors helps them feel like they're serving the community.
"It makes you think about how many people are living in buildings where it's really tough to live," Ajao says. "It's almost an honor to me because I've lived in Cincinnati all my life. I know the areas, and just going around and being able to help people in different pockets, you feel good about that."
Buildings and Inspections Director Art Dahlberg says the inspectors academy is moving the needle. The city expects to have about 95% of the inspectors it needs when the next class graduates in April 2027.