Foreclosed Vacant Houses Posing Threat to Neighbours

Foreclosed vacant houses are posing threats to neighbours as regards safety. These are tinder boxes and have been taken over by criminal gangs. The south suburbs are challenged with this problem of vacant units.

Len Zabawa is 65. He tends to his lawn, keeping it trimmed and groomed but the house next to his has been foreclosed and lying vacant for over a year. It is blighting the locality with its garden looking like a forest. A lawn mower will be of no use now. None takes care of it.

The residents of south suburbs were neat and tidy working class people. But it has been badly battered by the housing crisis. The area is dotted with foreclosures that are lying around empty. It has the highest vacancy numbers in Illinois State as per the findings of South Suburban Mayors and Managers Association.

There were 9000 cases of foreclosures in Cook in 2009 and 70,000 foreclosures in Chicago according to Woodstock Institute of Chicago. The responsibility of caring for these derelict units has fallen on the taxpayers ultimately.

$25,000 has been set aside each by both Park Forest and Oak Forest just from tending to the overgrown yards. Romeoville has earmarked $15,000 for cutting grass and tending to the properties.

Lawrence Kerestes of Park Forest Community Development said that the villages were reeling under the impact. They want to keep them clean and neat but for this they have to dish out funds either for maintenance or demolition. For demolition it costs about $10,000 per house. Prior to the collapse of the housing market the village would raze to the ground two or three properties annually. But now three units have been pulled down in one month of May. They are placing liens on the units in the hope of recouping some of the expenses incurred.

Most of the residents of Romeoville are satisfied with the efforts being made by the village to maintain or demolish the properties. Full time employees have been engaged to make contacts with the banks to put pressure on them to do the needful.

John Noak, the Mayor said that more or less the banks have been cooperative. The problem arises when the banks themselves do not know which properties they own!

A housing collaborative was set up last June by the South Suburban Mayors and Managers Association to tackle the foreclosure related problems.

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