The city of LaPorte is going after blighted properties in their neighborhoods, in an effort to get “slumlord” property owners to fix up their rental properties.
The number of abandoned properties the city has had to address is around 100, roughly a third of what there were in LaPorte at the height of the recent recession, according to the Northwest Indiana Times.
Mayor Blair Milo and a city attorney are doing their best to keep the process moving forward in an environment where the courts aren’t always able to deal with such properties in a timely manner. Complaints range from homes allowed to become uninhabitable, to unchecked grass and weeds allowed to grow around properties.
There are discussions about raising the cost of the city street department having to cut the grass around these properties as a possible incentive to get the owners to take care of it themselves.
1 comment
Wouldn’t fixing up a house in these blighted neighborhoods be like selling a Rolex watch at Walmart? The rent will get to expensive for the neighborhood the houses are in and the people that are willing to live there won’t be able to afford it and the people that can afford it won’t live in that neighborhood!
How about a whole bunch of new laws to require renters to actually take care of the houses they are living in? Start with mowing the lawn!