SitemapThe city of Youngstown has a plan in place that could ultimately bring down all of the worst vacant homes in the city.
The city hopes being a part of the demolition business will be a thing of the past if they can tear down up to 750 of the worst homes in two years or less.
The city already has $8-million dollars in ARP funds in their back pocket for this project, but they're waiting to get their hands on a statewide $12-million residential brownfield grant that they've applied for.
The city said this grant would get the job done quicker and ARP funds could go elsewhere.
"If we get the brownfield grant, part of the demolition process gets taken over by the Land Bank," Mike Durkin, Youngstown Code Enforcement and Blite Remediation Superintendent said, "That's the difference."
Because the Mahoning County Land Bank would take care of the physical demolition, the city would be able to focus resources on identifying and prepping vacant homes for demolition.
"We can see the finish line," Deb Flora Executive Director of Mahoning County Land Bank said, "and that is a really strong statement to make, considering that not that long ago, we had more than 4,000 vacant, abandoned badly beat up structures in the city of Youngstown.
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