Ryan touts blight plan to eliminate 1.3M homes

WARREN — U.S. Rep Tim Ryan announced legislation Tuesday that he says will provide the money to take down the 1.3 million vacant homes in America and eliminate blight in communities like Warren, Youngstown and Akron.

Ryan, standing in front of a dilapidated home on Maryland Street Northwest, said the legislation would authorize the money through the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

He said homes need to be taken down and others need to be rehabilitated and sold.

He said “no citizen of this country should have to drive down their street and see four or five, six dilapidated homes, drive past empty factories that have been empty for a good many years.”

He said the county land banks, like those represented at the press conference from Mahoning, Trumbull and Summit counties, “have done a phenomenal job of doing all of the heavy lifting in the local communities for a long, long time.”

He said he is going to work with the land banks in the coming months “to really build a more comprehensive bill that deals both with the taking down of these buildings but also the rehabilitation part, which could lead to more job creation in our community.”