14,600 blighted properties demolished in Ohio under program

Washington Times ^ | 27 February 2015 | ANN SANNER

[Lorianne]

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) - More than 14,600 blighted properties around Ohio have been demolished in the past two years under a program aimed at benefiting areas affected by foreclosures, the state’s attorney general said Friday.

Ohio used $75 million from a national settlement with major mortgage servicers to create a grant program in 2012 to revitalize neighborhoods and eliminate abandoned structures. A portion of the settlement money also was designated for consumer relief in the form of cash payments, loan modifications and refinancing.

Attorney General Mike DeWine released a report on the results of the demolition program at a news conference Friday.

The grant program helped get rid of eyesore properties that posed as safety hazards and havens for crime, he said.

For instance, one three-story property in Hardin County had become known as “The Heroin Hotel” because of the number of police calls for drug activity. The building was in such poor shape that a side street near it had to be closed at times, according to the report from DeWine’s office.

“The demolition took longer than expected as the contractors took extra precautions to avoid the large number of needles they found during inspections and debris removal,” the report read. The site is now a green space.

[Whenifhow]

Ohio Ping

[null and void]

Brought to you by the same kind of people who, during the last Great Depression, soaked oranges in kerosine before dumping them, lest hungry people pick them up and eat them.

[ansel12]

I’m from Houston and had grown up seeing houses that were like out of a 1930s movie as far being shacks, for instance on Memorial Drive, just up the street from President H.W. Bush’s favorite BBQ place, but they were owned by poor (black) people and the real estate grew in value over the decades.

When I lived in Minneapolis I learned that they kicked out poor people and destroyed shabby houses, it was a startling thing to see how the left ‘cleans up’ and erased, what to me looked like affordable housing, and what was already being owned.

The left is cold and “efficient”.

[DanielRedfoot]

Hay Ho, Way to go, Ohio….

[null and void]

Exactly.

[minnesota_bound]

North Minneapolis, Minnesota could use this program.

[jcon40]

Have no doubt some connected folks are going to make some serious $$$ in the name of helping the poor....anything paid for by the Fed will automatically trigger Davis Bacon for the unions

[wjcsux]

Most of the blight in Ohio and other states was created by failed Progressive government policies. Detroit is a shining example.

[familyop]

"Ohio used $75 million" to demolish houses that should have been maintained but were unoccupied.

"A portion of the settlement money also was designated for consumer relief in the form of cash payments," flowing right back to landlords.

"loan modifications and refinancing" for newer houses and apartments ("condos"), most of which will never be paid off.

Just let it fall. Residential properties are overvalued by several hundred percent, as are property assessments. Dump the tyrants of the bureaucracy. Let them find real jobs making useful products.

[clearcarbon]

"14,600 blighted properties demolished in Ohio under program"

Typical demRAT methodology, punish the houses. Move the blight somewhere else.

[familyop]

"Brought to you by the same kind of people who, during the last Great Depression, soaked oranges in kerosine before dumping them, lest hungry people pick them up and eat them."

I saw a condemnation and demolition binge by real estate developers and public officials in a small city in the Midwest. All white neighborhoods with old but mostly occupied and maintained houses. They were cheap places with low property taxes.

The local political folks did have one old, rundown shack in a slightly more well-to-do neighborhood. They threw some unused syringes and trash into the old dirt floor of it and advertised it for rent to make the false point. That place remained as it was after the demolition in other older neighborhoods.

The real story of your federal funds at work, at least for some locales.

BTW, a few years later, a tornado demolished many of the houses of the more influential residents that city.

[SaveFerris]

I’m never surprised by such stories anymore. I’ve seen a few people in action.

[sockmonkey]

Guess they never watched Texas Flip ‘n’ Move on the DIY Channel.

[shalom aleichem]

Sure, takes it all back to prairie.

Then we can live in caves and tee-pees, and hunt buffalo.