SitemapWith about 7,000 vacant houses demolished in Youngstown in the past 18 years, those who have played major roles in that effort are working on programs to bring people back to the city and help current residents.
“It’s all part of a housing strategy started years ago to remediate the blight and start working to build new housing in the city,” said Michael Durkin, Youngstown’s code enforcement and blight remediation superintendent. “We’re not there yet, but we’re heading in the right direction.”
Since 2007, 6,939 vacant houses have been demolished with more than 500 taken down in six of those years. The most was 646 in 2018.
There will be 405 demolished by the end of this year, Durkin said. That is the most since 2019 – and greatly helped by a state grant, he said. Demolitions have slowed in recent years because such a large dent was put into the number of houses that needed to come down, particularly between 2015 and 2019, Durkin said.
There aren’t that many left to take down, Durkin said.
Also, some houses that were slated to be demolished have been saved through city programs, largely funded by its American Rescue Plan dollars, and efforts by the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp., Durkin said.
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