Dunkirk seeks help with blight

Officials may have found a solution for eliminating blighted and abandoned homes in the county.
The Indiana Housing and Community Development Association created a grant program that distributes funds for that purpose using a portion of money it received from the federal government for the Hardest Hit Fund. Dunkirk submitted 10 homes in its application Friday.
Portland plans to apply during the program’s second round in February. Redkey may also apply at that time.
Jay County director of community development Ami Huffman said the program was created earlier this year after communities told the IHCDA abandoned homes create bigger problems for communities than foreclosed homes.
In order to qualify, Huffman had to visit abandoned homes throughout Dunkirk and score them based on blight, including whether the homes contained asbestos, mold and lead paint. The homes also get points if they’ve been condemned for methamphetamine manufacturing, the number of public complaints made about the home and if the city or town has community partners.
All of the houses Dunkirk submitted were on the county’s tax sale list and have been sitting empty for quite some time, Huffman said.
“They really have to have the roof and exterior walls damaged, no HVAC and pulled wiring,” Huffman said.
Dunkirk Mayor Dan Watson said the city has been working to clean up abandoned and blighted properties for several years, but it’s only able to do a few each year because it’s an expensive undertaking. Receiving the grant money would enable the city to clean up those 10 properties in a year’s time instead of drawing out the process
“These are probably 10 of the worst,” he said. “So it’s nice to try to get them cleaned up.”
Portland Mayor Randy Geesaman planned to apply for the grant this month. He previously identified homes throughout the city that may qualify, but Huffman was only able to find three or four that met the grant’s requirements.
Instead of only submitting a few, the pair decided to wait until February and use the next few months to identify more homes that will apply.
“We need to do more homework,” Geesaman said.
Huffman said many of the property owners for blighted houses in Portland are hard to track down, which makes the application process more difficult because the property owner has to give permission for the home to be demolished.
“I really thought we could get as many properties in Portland as we did in Dunkirk. We’ll just need to do more work,” she said. “They’re homes required a little more as far as the property owners and chasing them down.”
If Dunkirk receives the grant, it will be responsible for 10 percent of the cost of demolishing each home. Because all the homes came off the tax sale list, Dunkirk can use the money the county will write off toward its match.
If Dunkirk is approved for the grant, demolition most likely won’t begin until spring. Once the homes are demolished, the city will offer the land to an adjacent neighbor or use it to create a neighborhood green space, Huffman said.
In the application, Huffman had to justify how demolishing the abandoned homes would help stabilize the community. Because the homes are spread out throughout the city, that was a little difficult, she said.
“I explained that Dunkirk was built on a gas boom … so once that all went down to one (glass plant) like it is now, then we have this problem with too many houses. So I explained it as stabilizing the community by right-sizing it a bit more,” she said.
Some of the abandoned houses may also be used by people selling and using drugs, which impacts an entire community, Huffman said. By demolishing the homes, it eliminates those gathering places.
“It gets rid of their place to do that in Dunkirk,” she said. “So if there’s no place to hide and be there, they’re not going to do it.”
Also, homes throughout Dunkirk were built close to one another so there isn’t much yard space, she added. By tearing down the homes, more space is created for the neighborhood or adjacent neighbor.
“They have more houses than they need right now, and it clears the way for nicer homes to be made or the adjacent owners to have more valuable homes,” Huffman said. “It makes it more attractive, it gets rid of the trash.”