YNDC’s City Survey Shows Progress with Vacant Houses
Industry Update
November 2, 2023
Source: wytv.com
Efforts to clean up and demolish blighted properties in Youngstown appear to be paying off, according to the results of the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corporation’s latest citywide survey.
The survey is completed biannually to keep track of the conditions of the city’s residential and commercial properties. The results of the survey are given to the Mahoning County Land Bank and city officials and are used to determine properties that may need to be demolished or repaired.
“I would say the primary takeaway this year is that vacant and abandoned properties continued to go down, so this year, we counted about 740 that we would characterize in that general range of vacant and abandoned that may merit demolition. Last time, we were at about 895 or so,” said Ian Beniston, executive director of YNDC.
Beniston’s team went out over the summer, taking photos of properties and looking for occupancy or exterior deficiencies. This is the first year that commercial properties were included in the survey.
Beniston said the decrease is significant, especially when compared to his first survey.
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