Some complain that more money needed for demolition of vacant buildings

YOUNGSTOWN — Thanks for the $2.7 million to stabilize the city’s neighborhoods, particularly through demolitions, but the money awarded by the federal government isn’t enough, some public officials and city residents said today.

Standing in front of a dilapidated house on Mineral Springs Avenue in the city’s Idora Neighborhood, they questioned how Youngstown, with a foreclosure rate of 14.7 percent, got about $2.7 million, less than nearly every other city that received money from this U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development program.

The rates from HUD for the previous 18 months, starting with September, show Youngstown with the highest foreclosure percentage among Ohio’s larger cities.

“The current federal allocation isn’t enough,” said Eva Ladson, a North Side resident who lives on Crandall Avenue in a neighborhood filled with vacant homes. “We are grateful for the $2.7 million. But what we’ve received is like putting a Band-Aid on an open surgical wound.”

Much of the money is to be used by the city to demolish vacant and blighted structures.

To take care of that problem would cost $10 million, said William D’Avignon, the city’s community development agency director.

The city has asked the state to give it some of the $116.9 million it received from HUD to be spent for this effort throughout Ohio.

For the complete story, read Saturday’s Vindicator or Vindy.com