Abandoned No More - by Mayor Bart Peterson

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Abandoned No More
by Mayor Bart Peterson
this is a monthly message from the Mayor to Indianapolis' Neighborhoods

Recently, I took a critical step in an ongoing battle to enforce the health and safety codes in Indianapolis. I declared war on abandoned houses.

As active neighborhood leaders, you are all too familiar with the dangers these eyesores pose to our community. Abandoned houses are unsightly, unsafe and unseemly corruptions of our dream of healthy neighborhoods. They stand as monuments to predatory lending, lowering property values and serving as magnets for criminal activity.

Houses are abandoned and remain vacant for a variety of reasons, but the bottom line is that property owners are required by law to keep their houses – vacant or occupied – in compliance with safety, fire and building codes. Currently, when a house becomes extremely run-down and unsafe, the City takes steps to have the house boarded and demolished. Yet, boarding and demolishing these houses alone will not have a positive impact on a neighborhood. I believe the solution is redevelopment, and an owner who will properly maintain the property.

To accomplish these objectives, I have put forth both a long-term strategy and short-term solutions to remove these hazards from our neighborhoods. It will take the cooperation on all fronts from the public and private sectors, as well as from community and neighborhood leaders like you.

The long-term approach will concentrate on several key areas, beginning with the creation of a system to be developed by the City which will classify all vacant and unsafe homes and rank properties according to condition. This system will make it easier for the private sector and neighborhood-based organizations to consider redevelopment potential and for the City to prosecute bad owners and direct resources toward properties. As we move forward, we also will incorporate the advice of the experts in our community such as neighborhood associations, CDCs, the Indianapolis Housing Task Force, real estate professionals, and those in the home building and repair businesses.

Other components of our long-term approach include the creation of a redevelopment and marketing plan to attract new homeowners to these houses, using tools and resources such as the City website, WCTY/Channel 16 and our community experts. We also will establish a permanent funding source to support this entire effort. Finally, we will develop a construction job program for neighborhood residents and youth; an aggressive effort to market and rehab abandoned houses has the potential to provide jobs for the people who live in targeted areas.

While we are tackling the challenges of abandoned houses in the long-term, there are some steps we can take now to stem this problem. Working with the Metropolitan Development Commission, we will reduce when appropriate the timeframe an owner has to redeem the back taxes on a vacant and unsafe property from twelve months to four, moving properties through the system and toward redevelopment faster. In addition, we will develop and publicize a “Top-Ten Target List” of the top ten problem property owners who have thwarted our attempts to regulate the conditions of the property. Placement on this list may be embarrassing for some, but I refuse to let a handful of individuals dictate living conditions in our neighborhoods.

At the same time, we will coordinate with our local law enforcement agencies, asking them to work with our inspectors to get more information on abandoned houses resulting from police and fire runs. And, we will work with our neighborhood associations, CDCs and other community groups to identify city-and county-owned properties that are ripe for redevelopment. We have a big job ahead of us, but addressing the problem in both the long-and short-term will allow us to make significant progress.

Eliminating abandoned houses from our city will take cooperation, creativity and hard work. I firmly believe Indianapolis is up to the challenge. I sincerely hope you join me.