Lorain County Lands $3.3M for Housing Demolition
March 1, 2016
By: Richard Payerchin, The Morning Journal
March 1, 2016
More than $3.3 million will pay for demolition of rundown houses in Lorain County.
Meanwhile, county efforts have resulted in a spike in collection of delinquent property taxes from owners of houses that are falling down.
The Lorain County Land Reutilization Corp. board met March 1 to discuss the latest information about the upcoming season of acquiring properties and tearing down dwellings that hurt property values in neighborhoods around the county.
Lorain County will receive more than $3.3 million from the latest award of $97.6 million for Foreclosure Prevention and Blight Removal in Ohio. On Feb. 19, federal legislators announced the money from the federal Hardest Hit Fund for distribution by the Ohio Housing Finance Agency.
“We should be able to cover a lot of ground with that,” said Patrick Metzger, director of the Lorain County Port Authority. The county port serves as coordinator for the County Land Reutilization Corporation, which also is known as the county land bank.
Metzger predicted the county land bank would be able to raze at least 120 homes with the additional $3 million.
The money comes as the latest source of funds to pay for residential demolitions.
In recent years, city and county officials have used an earlier grant of about $3.2 million from the Housing Finance Agency to target houses in Lorain and Elyria.
The money was supposed to cover about 120 units, but as of the end of February, it paid to knock down about 125 houses for a cost of $1.3 million to $1.4 million, Metzger said. With that money available, it appeared the county could cover demolition of 200 dwellings instead of 120, he said.
There are 26 demolitions scheduled in Lorain and about 30 in Elyria in the upcoming couple months, Metzger said.
“We’re going to move pretty quick on these,” Metzger said.
In recent years, Lorain County communities have seen almost 300 demolitions paid for with the Housing Finance Agency money or other nonlocal sources of funding, according to land bank figures. That includes:
• 170 homes in Lorain, for a total of $3 million spent
• 117 homes in Elyria, for a total of $2 million spent
• 10 homes in Avon Lake and North Ridgeville, for a total of $115,000 spent
Metzger acknowledged residents sometimes suggest using empty houses as residences for homeless people who could live there and fix up the buildings.
“It’s a solid idea at the core, but we can’t use these,” Metzger said.
On his cellular phone, Metzger had pictures of one Lorain house full of trash, and another one with ceiling joists that collapsed inside.
“The problem with the houses that we’re looking at is, they’re just so ruined by the time they go through the process and we get them,” he said. “We have them to demolish because they’re so bad. With that degree of decay and rot in these houses, they’re almost too dangerous to go into.”
Meanwhile, Lorain County has collected about $3.2 million through efforts to collect delinquent property taxes since about mid-2015, said Lorain County Assistant Prosecutor Chris Pyanowski.
The collections were spurred by the county prosecutor’s office and treasurer’s office collaborating to foreclose on properties with owners who are behind in property taxes, he said.
Pyanowski has been assigned to work with the county foreclosure issues and Lorain County Treasurer Daniel Talarek, who also is chairman of the land bank board.
The land bank gives the county a way to take control of land that is delinquent in taxes but that does not sell at sheriff’s sale in foreclosure, the officials said.
The county’s ability to take control of the land becomes a factor when the county threatens to foreclose. The threat of foreclosure also has inspired some property owners to pay back taxes or sell parcels to new owners who will pay, Pyanowski said.
The county has more than 100 foreclosures pending at Lorain County Common Pleas Court. Some of those properties have houses that could be appropriate for demolition under the newest round of money announced in February, Pyanowski said.