As we all know, one of the main factors that led to the
Great Recession was the housing crisis that affected communities throughout the
nation. An incredible number of houses went into foreclosure, and many of them
were left abandoned for long stretches of time with no maintenance or upkeep.
Even as parts of the country continue to recover from the recession, numerous neighborhoods
remain in distress, hampered by large numbers of homes in disrepair. To address
this issue, housing groups in the metro Atlanta area are attempting to purchase
and renovate 7,500 homes to help hard hit neighborhoods. The Atlanta Neighborhood Development
Partnership and Resources for Residents and Communities are focusing on new
revitalization efforts to build communities up along with neighborhood
associations to fix what has happened in neighborhoods the past couple of
years.
As someone who has been renovating a home in a transitional
neighborhood in Atlanta for nearly the past two years, this concept immediately
appealed to me. I then thought of other areas that were hit harder like
Florida, Nevada, and Michigan, where headlines about property values seemed
more like bad jokes than real news. In
these areas, different solutions are being deployed. Michigan recently kicked
off a $100 million anti-blight effort to demolish abandoned homes to give the
neighborhoods more of an appealing quality.
Some 7,000
homes in five cities will be demolished as a part of this effort. When I
read this news, my inner-preservationist said, “Instead of spending federal
grant money to tear things down, where are all the flippers and developers?”
But I quickly came back to reality. I live in a city that
seems to have an abundance of developers, flippers, and “regular Joes” that
want to invest in the area. But for places with limited future potential and
market demand, what can be done? Is it
simply up to the remaining residents to maintain their own properties? If
outsiders swoop in and purchase a really cheap house and fix it up will that
encourage more businesses and people to come? Certainly, in many of these
distressed areas, the problems go much deeper than empty houses to include
things like pervasive poverty, failing schools, and ineffective leadership. In
these cases, demolishing structures that are too far gone to save economically
may be the only realistic first step on the road to revitalization.
Even in states such as Michigan, California, Nevada,
Florida, and Arizona, forecasts seem to indicate that housing market stability
will increase in the future. But though
there’s talk of stability and growth, there are still many houses that are
going into disrepair because they stand empty. Communities all across the
country are best-served by facing these issues head on, regardless of which
solution works best for their specific situation.
