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Fight against blight goes slowly

County needs to have a plan for properties it buys, an official says.

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By Josh Sweigart, Staff Writer 2:56 AM Saturday, October 24, 2009

HAMILTON — A burned out house and a former garage frequented by squatters in New Miami are the first buildings slated for demolition through Butler County’s Neighborhood Stabilization Program.

Eventually, the county hopes to help build a new library in Monroe with the funds, set up respite care centers for the Board of Developmental Disabilities, tear down 50 blighted structures and renovate 15.

But progress on these programs is proceeding slowly, according to county Community Development Director Donna Everson.

There’s a lot of red tape, Everson said, to buying properties and tearing down buildings abandoned by their owners. Plus the county wants to have a purpose or buyer in mind before buying blighted properties.

“The county doesn’t want to own a bunch of real estate,” Everson said. “We have to know what we’re going to do with each property before we go ahead.”

The $4.2 million federal grant awarded last year to address the housing crisis by fixing up or demolishing abandoned homes comes with a timeline. The county has one more year to have properties identified.

Identifying specific properties has been left up to the governments in eligible areas outside of Hamilton and Middletown, which received their own funds.

In New Miami, those include a home at 291 S. Riverside Drive that previously caught fire, and an abandoned car garage at 138 Cain Ave. — one of half a dozen properties the county is eyeing on Cain.

In addition to dragging down property values, the structures are a public safety hazard, New Miami Mayor Patti Hanes said

The plan is for Habitat for Humanity or Neighborhood Housing Services to buy some of the properties to make homes for low-income residents. A quarter of the federal grant must be used on the poor.

Developmental Disabilities officials are looking to the program to build one or more facilities for developmentally disabled clients whose caretakers need respite.

“(The agency) has the money to staff a facility like this, they just don’t have the facility,” Everson said.

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