05-29-2007 Luecke plans to reduce abandoned houses by 72%

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When completed,the plan will exceed Luecke's directive in his 2007 State of the City address—a 10 percent reduction over three years—more than a year ahead of schedule. Speaking with members of the South Bend Common Council at a home renovated by the Near Northwest Neighborhood Inc. at 615 Cottage Grove Ave., Luecke outlined the city's new vacant and abandoned housing strategy, which was identified as a key objective of City Plan, South Bend's 20-year comprehensive plan. The strategy calls for the city to: • Demolish nearly 400 substandard properties citywide and in targeted neighborhoods with the highest concentration of abandoned buildings for $1.95 million. (Many of the properties also include garages or other structures.) • Acquire and clean out 45 abandoned or vacant homes in targeted neighborhoods on the city's northwest and west sides for $1.5 million. • Sell for $1 each these 45 homes to homebuyers or developers (with sale restriction to owner occupants) who would invest at least $75,000 in rehabilitation in each home for a total of$3.375 million in private-sector funds. (Individual homebuyers would be required to reside in the home for five years, while developers would have to complete all rehabilitation work before sale, and a five-year occupancy requirement would apply to the subsequent buyer.) • Work on vacated properties with the St. Joseph County Homebuilders Association, Habitat for Humanity and other nonprofits for infill housing or, when possible, sell the lot to a neighboring homeowner. • Identify entire blocks as the focus of a specific demolition and redevelopment strategy. • Provide incentives for residential housing development in South Bend. In a recent meeting with the Home Builders Association of St. Joseph Valley, city officials discussed possible incentives for either scattered single site or large multi-unit developments. Incentives range from tax abatement to residential Tax Incremental Financing districts, utilities and infrastructure aid, architectural design services, identification of available building sites and financial assistance programs for qualified customers. • Propose for consideration by the Common Council a vacant house registration ordinance, which would require registration of any home that is vacant for more than 90 days and in violation of existing code regulations, if there are not ongoing efforts to market, sell or renovate the property. • Free up additional resources for boarding up unsafe structures. • Remain flexible in its implementation of the strategy in order to respond to market changes or unforeseen opportunities. Vacant and abandoned housing is a nationwide problem with such properties accounting for about 15 percent of the area of the typical large city, more than 12,000 acres on average, according the Brookings Institution. South Bend has 621 houses that are both vacant and abandoned, according to a May 2006 survey by the city's Department of Code Enforcement. They represent 28 percent of all vacant houses throughout the city. To produce that tally, code inspectors made on-site visits of each property—a task that will become easier this year as inspectors receive new handheld digital devices to streamline their work and make information up-to-date 24/7. 2