Hundreds of houses targeted for razing


Youngstown demolitions to begin in a few months

By DAVID SKOLNICK

CITY HALL REPORTER

YOUNGSTOWN — About 500 dilapidated houses in the city will be demolished in a few months, thanks to money from the federal Neighborhood Stabilization Program.

City officials want more control over which houses are taken down, but the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development funding has specific requirements for the program’s use, and the city has to comply or lose the money, said Mayor Jay Williams and William D’Avignon, the city’s community development-agency director.

The program is designed to invest in neighborhoods that have experienced high foreclosure rates in the last 18 to 24 months. That means the city can’t use the money on houses vacant for longer than that.

A large percentage of the neighborhoods eligible for the funding are on the city’s South Side.

The city is using $1.3 million of the $2.7 million federal grant for housing demolitions. The work should start in a few months.

Though demolitions take up almost half of the city’s grant, it is also using $450,000 to buy and renovate recently foreclosed houses, D’Avignon said.

The Youngstown Metropolitan Housing Authority will get $325,000, and the Youngstown Neighborhood Community Development Corp. will receive $353,000 from the stabilization fund to buy foreclosed houses and lease them to low-income people.

The program also provides up to $270,000 for administrative fees. If the city’s administrative costs are lower than $270,000, the money could be used to demolish more vacant houses or to purchase and rehabilitate other structures, D’Avignon said.

City council voted Wednesday to appropriate the $2.7 million.

Also Wednesday, the Ohio Housing Finance Agency announced the city would receive a $200,000 grant to create a new zoning code that would comply with the Youngstown 2010 citywide redevelopment plan.

Youngstown 2010, adopted five years ago by city council, outlines property-use plans for the entire city.

“Youngstown 2010 is the big plan, and this money will go towards implementing the zoning aspects of that plan,” Williams said.

The grant money will allow the city to hire experts to overhaul its outdated zoning code to focus on redevelopment, D’Avignon said.

“Zoning ordinances are highly technical documents, and the money would be used to help us create new zoning ordinances to improve the city,” he said.

The state agency announced Wednesday that only eight of the applications — out of more than 30 seeking funds — are receiving money for their programs.

skolnick@vindy.com

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