Others were claimed by the federal government because the owners couldn't keep up with mortgage payments. The conditions have created an image of blight, poverty and decay in neighborhoods that border on a downtown the city is trying desperately to revitalize. Blight upsets Jesus Ramos, who has worked for 42 years to keep his neighborhood on the 300 block of N. Fourth Street clean and quiet. The Bureau of Code Enforcement does not keep an inventory of homes it has boarded up. Many other homes are boarded by the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development, which sometimes lets houses sit idle for a year.
People think there are drugs.
Congregations United for Neighborhood Action has pressured city officials with phone calls about boarded properties every three months, Ramos said. The city has purchased some of the worst properties, ones deemed blighted because they were uninhabitable. But the situation persists in an area that lists some of the city's cheapest real estate. To tackle the problem, the next mayor will have to rally city authorities and nonprofit housing groups to create more home ownership. The mayor will have to work with state and federal officials to secure redevelopment grants.