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What to do with 6,200+ vacant Columbus homes and $50 million in federal neighborhood-stabilization money?
January 7th, 2012 categories: Columbus News, For Home Buyers, Real Estate News
Long overdue Demolition of a Vacant Columbus Home on Long Street in Jan. 2012
The fact of the matter is that no one know what to do with our city’s vacant structures, Columbus has torn down 139 of them so far but you can’t demolish your way out of this problem.
The other day Columbus City Council met with area residents to discuss the issue and while it’s my opinion we need more action and less talk, solutions need to be brainstormed before they can be implemented.
One interesting idea came from City Attorney Richard Pfeiffer who suggested a ‘restoration partnership’ outlined in the Columbus Dispatch article from yesterday and excerpted here:
Vacant houses swamping city
Official suggests neighborhood leaders help find new owners
By Mark Ferenchik
The Columbus Dispatch
Friday January 6, 2012 7:38 AM
The message that Columbus officials gave last night on the crisis of vacant and abandoned homes plaguing city neighborhoods was clear: We don’t have enough money to solve this mess ourselves.
So they’re asking neighborhoods for help.
During the Columbus City Council hearing on how to deal with the spreading problem, City Attorney Richard C. Pfeiffer Jr. made a suggestion.
Area commissions and civic groups could help identify residents who would be interested in buying and fixing up tax-delinquent properties. The city then would acquire those homes through foreclosures and deed the properties to those people for the cost of the foreclosure process.
If those people didn’t follow through, the city would take back the property.
He called it a “restoration partnership.” The city alone can’t bring back neighborhoods, Pfeiffer said.
The city has been using about $50 million in federal neighborhood-stabilization money to deal with the foreclosure crisis in its hardest-hit neighborhoods: Franklinton, the Near East Side, the Hilltop, Linden and the South Side.
It has acquired homes with that money — it now has 900 properties in its land bank — and partnered with nonprofits to redevelop homes.
The city is using more than $3 million of that federal money to demolish homes. So far, it has torn down 139.
“When that money dries up, what are we going to do?” Pfeiffer asked.
There are now more than….click here to go to the Columbus Dispatch story and read the rest.
