Land bank completes demolition program

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

The Mahoning County Land Bank today completes its first countywide demolition grant program, having demolished 308 houses in 12 communities and far exceeding its initial estimate of 275 houses to be razed, the land bank announced Monday.

The demolitions occurred in Youngstown, Campbell, Struthers, Lowellville, Beloit and Sebring and in Austintown, Boardman, Coitsville, Milton, Smith and Springfield townships.

The statewide Moving Ohio Forward program was launched in May 2012 by the Ohio Attorney General’s Office and funded with $75 million from the AG’s share of a mortgage servicing settlement brokered by the U.S. Department of Justice.

Under the grant, Mahoning County received $1.56 million in reimbursements for demolished vacant, abandoned and blighted houses. An additional $1 million came from matching funds from communities where the demolitions occurred.

“Demolition, when necessary, is costly to local governments. This grant eased some of that burden,” said Dan Yemma, land-bank chairman and county treasurer.

Demolition costs here averaged $8,232 per house.

A program highlight was the demolition of an empty, moldy house on New Road in Austintown, which Habitat for Humanity replaced on that site with a new house for James Skok, a Marine veteran, and his family.

The grant strategically focused demolitions on main thoroughfares and near operating businesses and institutions and places where people tend to congregate, said Debora Flora, land-bank executive director.

The land bank’s next residential demolition project, funded last February by a $4.26 million Ohio Housing Finance Agency grant, already is underway.

Under this Neighborhood Initiative Program grant, which requires no local matching money, demolitions must be completed by mid-2016 in Austintown, Boardman, Campbell, Struthers and Youngstown.

That grant is targeted toward “tipping-point neighborhoods” that previously were strong, but recently began to struggle with foreclosures and vacancies and could benefit from stabilization through demolition, Flora said.

“We do hope that we will make people feel better about where they are by taking out homes that have been problematic for the community,” Flora said.

Abandoned, dilapidated houses left standing without authorized occupants can threaten neighborhood safety by becoming havens of drug dealing and “stash houses” for stolen goods; and mowing their lawns is a burden on local governments, Flora said.

Even with the demolitions completed in the AG’s program, land bank officials say several thousand abandoned and unsafe houses remain standing in the county.

“It’s safe to say that Mahoning County has a $20 million problem on its hands,” Yemma said.