U.S. cities struggle with blighted bank-owned homes
By Tim Reid, Reuters
8 June 2012 LOS ANGELES – The smell of rotting food and decay inside 10956 South Wilmington Avenue, Los Angeles, was overwhelming. A burst pipe in the kitchen ceiling leaked water onto a floor littered with half empty cans, razor blades, odd shoes, stained clothing and an upturned, mold-ridden sofa. Windows were smashed and boarded up. The vacant home was foreclosed on in August 2011 by Bank of America, which has done nothing to repair it. And in a cruel twist that underscores the connection between the housing meltdown and the fiscal crisis afflicting many local governments, the city of Los Angeles lacks the wherewithal to force the property owner to clean up the mess. Across America, bank-owned, blighted houses sit untouched, sometimes for years, disfiguring what in many cases are already troubled neighbourhoods. Activists say the problem is particularly acute in minority areas. And many cities do not have the resources, the will or the power to force banks to maintain their properties. The house on South Wilmington Avenue and the heavily African-American south Los Angeles neighbourhood where it is located offer a case in point. Of roughly 400 bank-owned homes surveyed in the area, half are in a state of blight, with a third “seriously blighted,” according to two activist groups, Good Jobs LA and the Alliance of Californians for Community Empowerment. Yet even though the city of Los Angeles, with some fanfare, passed an ordinance two years ago compelling banks to repair blighted homes they own, or face fines, not a cent in penalties has been collected. “My people don’t even have time to go to the toilet anymore,” said Luke Zamperini, head of the Los Angeles Building and Safety department, which is responsible for enforcing building codes and collecting fines. Zamperini said his department had been cut by 60 percent over the last five years as a result of a non-stop state and local budget crisis. […]
