How Ohio is Tackling the Crumbling Homes Left Vacant and Forgotten
Industry Update
March 28, 2023
Source: news5cleveland.com
After nature powered its own slow demolition for years, it only took crews about an hour to tear down a vacant home on West 38th Street, which was the first in what’s expected to be a dozen demolitions across the city.
The demolition comes after the state awarded Ashtabula County Land Bank $609,000 through its still relatively-new Demolition and Site Revitalization Program.
“We had a good inventory of the bad that we were able to come to the table when they said [to] get our list together,” said Ashtabula City Manager Jim Timonere.
The handful of crumbling foundations across Ashtabula only adds up to a small fraction of the nearly 3,700 similar demolition projects approved across 87 of Ohio’s counties through the program.
Timonere pointed out that blighted homes often reduce the property value of neighboring homes, which can make it difficult even in a prosperous housing market.
“I’ve seen the worst of the worst,” Timonere said. “There have been remnants from the 2008 mortgage crisis that we’re still dealing with today.”
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