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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Attracting crime: Indy’s vacant homes

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City officials say they aren’t able to physically keep count of Indianapolis’ climbing number of abandoned homes, however, they are working on a handful of programs dedicated to selling and demolishing homes in some of the inner-city’s worst areas.

“We recently had our quality of life team go out into the city and one of the biggest, single things we saw were vacant and abandoned homes,” said Julie Fidler, housing and services specialist for the Indianapolis Department of Public Safety (DPS). “It’s not only a quality of life issue, it’s an attraction of nuisance because people who commit crimes may use those abandoned homes as the bases of their operation. It’s dangerous to our first responders and our neighborhoods.”

According to officials at the Department of Code Enforcement (DCE), the budget for demolishing vacant and abandoned homes is approximately $850,000 per year. That total also includes emergency demolition costs, which occurs when a property is an imminent and immediate danger to the community. This process takes place only when necessary because of its costly price tag. Emergency demolition usually falls between $15,000 and $25,000, where the average cost for traditional demolition is $12,000.

Steve Wolff, deputy director of the division of inspections within the department of code enforcement said the city’s demolition program goal for this year is to retrieve demolition bids for 40 properties by the end of the fiscal year.

“The Department of Code Enforcement is working with all of our partners, DPS, Department of Metropolitan Development (DMD) and other agencies to find solutions to abandoned and vacant housing,” said Wolff.

Many of the DPS departments frequently give suggestions on vacant and abandoned homes that attract high crime activity mentioned Wolff.

In order for a vacant and abandoned home to be considered for demolition, a series of detailed steps must take place.

Properties are reported for inspection by the DCE. If code violations are discovered, a case is built that could possibly repair the property or call for demolition. If the latter is decided upon, the owner of the property receives notice of violation in the mail and is allowed due process, the obligation to any citizen to notify them if action is going to take place. Next, a notice for a hearing, which is presided by an administrative law judge, usually an attorney given the authority to interpret the administrative law, decides the case.

“We can’t explain how important due process is in situations such as these,” said Wolff. “Everyone should be notified when action is being taken on his or her property.”

During the hearing, the administrative law judge may affirm “to dig,” which calls for the DCE to display why the property needs to be demolished and that due process has taken place.

“This does not mean the city is obligated to demolish the structure. It means ‘we can and we may’ if funds and opportunity are available,” added Wolff.

Properties selected for demolition are sent to all interested demolition vendors and a notice of bid is published in the local newspaper. After all bids are received, a committee selects the bidder to complete the demolition work. Inspections for asbestos, a group of minerals with thin microscopic fibers widely used in construction which when disturbed, can become trapped in the lungs, also take place.

Currently 21 properties are on the list with a possibility for demolition city officials say and they are hoping to include more homes in the following bid cycle.

Another program taking place is maintained by the DMD and Renew Indianapolis, a nonprofit partner that holds responsibility for marketing abandoned homes and finding interested buyers.

Mark Forcum, asset manager for the DMD said since May 2014, more than 160 of the over 900 properties from Indianapolis’ land bank have been sold. The goal is to return vacant properties to productive use by selling them to individuals and non-profit and for-profit buyers.

About 60 percent are sold to first and second time homebuyers; 18 percent to nonprofits; and 22 percent to traditional for-profit investors.

“We were awarded $6.9 million to demolish over 300 properties and last week we got the approval to do that,” mentioned Wolff.

To report a vacant or abandoned home in your area, call the Mayor’s Action Center at (317) 327-4622 or visit Maps.indy.gov/requestindy.

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