Grant money helps bring down abandoned homes 1.3.11

Mary Milz/Eyewitness News

Indianapolis - Heavy equipment is knocking down homes in the city at a record rate and the pace could keep up in 2011.
Ernest Gilliam tries to keep up his northeast side home, but it's not just the trash that gets to him.
"Like this house here, it makes the neighborhood go down. We had to call the city to cut the grass in back," Gilliam said.
The house is one of several vacant homes in the neighborhood. Some are under orders to repair and appear in court. If not, they face the wrecking ball.
One house made the "hit list" a few days before Christmas. The wrecker gave Eyewitness News a peek inside just after the first strike.
"It's pretty bad. The floors are gone, the roof is burnt. It's ready to come down," said Anthony Boswell with Denny Excavation.
So were hundreds of others. In fact, the city demolished a record 675 houses in 2010, nearly twice as many as the year before.
Reggie Walton of the Department of Metropolitan Development said the city used $1.6 million in Community Development Block Grant money and $1.2 million in Neighborhood Stabilization Program dollars - money designated for neighborhood improvements.
"These are properties that are unsafe and uninhabitable. Some are arson properties, some have been scrapped and salvaged by illegal scrappers," Walton said.
"I'm glad to see it go," said Elizabeth Bird, who lives in the 4200 block of Baker Drive.
Bird, who lives across the street, says she much prefers the vacant lot.
"Just the look of it and the neighborhood. It helped the look of the place around here to be torn down," she said.
While the city bills the property owners for demolition - about $6,000 - Walton says few ever pay. In fact, most are eligible for the tax sale, but that wasn't the case here. The owner of the Baker Drive property, identified as 4032 Land Trust, paid $5,000 in back taxes and nuisance fines last year.
Unlike the people who live to the boarded-up eyesores, Guido Casalini sees opportunity. He works for a property management company.
"It's a great market for rentals right now. If you get in at the right time and rehab for rental, it's great," Casalini said.
Casalini and the city both know there are plenty more houses out there ripe for development or demolition.
So far, the city has $1.2 million in CDBG dollars. But Walton says, if plans to sell the water company to Citizens Gas go through, they should have enough money to tear down 2,000 houses.
http://www.wthr.com/story/13776345/grant-money-helps-bring-down-abandoned-homes