Evansville launches ‘Fight Blight’ program
Subscriber Benefit
As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe Now
Evansville Mayor Stephanie Terry on Wednesday announced the launch of the city’s new Fight Blight program. The goal of the program, the city said, is to identify and rehabilitate blighted properties throughout the city.
The mayor previously said the city would allocate $550,000 in American Rescue Plan Act interest funds toward blight removal.
The first phase of the Fight Blight program will use some of that funding to raze 23 properties already slated for demolition by the city’s Building Commission, but were delayed due to a lack of funding.
“We have a number of properties across Evansville that are vacant, abandoned, or in other ways beyond repair,” Terry said in a news release. “Fight Blight is aimed at identifying those properties and either rehabilitating or re-developing as many as possible, so that we remove these hazardous eyesores from our neighborhoods and bring them back as safe, stable homes or businesses that residents are proud to have in their neighborhoods.”
The mayor’s office is also asking for assistance from residents to help create a database of blighted properties throughout the city. Such properties are described as those that are vacant, abandoned, boarded up, or that otherwise exhibit “objectively determinable signs of deterioration sufficient to constitute a threat to human health, safety, and public welfare.”
Residents can send the property’s address, condition of the house, and, if possible, a photograph to the city via email to get it into the database.
“The first step in solving any problem is having a thorough understanding of the problem,” Terry said. “We’re asking the public to help us identify as many blighted properties as possible to help ensure we have a full grasp of the scope of this issue, which will allow us to move forward with a strategic and intentional effort to remediate the blight in our community – which is a critical element in our neighborhood revitalization efforts.”
The city said once the identified properties have been inspected and found to meet the qualifications for demolition or rehabilitation, they will be prioritized based on their condition and location.
The mayor noted that not all properties will be able to be cleaned up immediately.
“This isn’t a problem we’ll solve in one year, or even two or three,” Terry said. “But we are committed to neighborhood revitalization, and these properties – along with being a drain on their neighborhoods – are dangers to anyone who enters, including police who may have enter due to criminal activity or firefighters battling a structure fire.”