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John Brecher / msnbc.com
An excavator demolishes a burned house in Elkhart on Monday, Aug. 24. About 95 percent of the debris will be sorted (by material, such as concrete, wood, plastic, steel and asphalt shingle) and recycled, said Chuck Pelley, owner of the excavating company. About five percent of the debris will be too small and mixed up for effective sorting, and goes to a landfill, he said.
The burned-out hulk of a house at 1032 McKinley St. didn’t put up much of a fight Monday when an excavator plunged its shovel through the charred exterior and began spilling its guts across the front yard.
“We’re all so glad it’s gone,“ said next-door neighbor Yolanda Evans, who had been staring at the eyesore since it was left uninhabitable by an early-morning fire on Nov. 20.
The house was leveled courtesy of the federal Neighborhood Stabilization Program, authorized by Congress in the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008. The program is intended to help cities deal with increasing numbers of abandoned and blighted properties left behind by the real estate meltdown.
The city of Elkhart, which received more than $2.25 million through the program, intends to use the money to demolish 60 blighted properties, said Crystal Welsh, the city’s community development director.
It also has formed a consortium with the nearby city of Goshen and the housing assistance agency La Casa to apply for another $6.9 million in funding under the federal stimulus package championed by President Barack Obama. A decision on that application is expected in November.
Elkhart intends to use properties that are cleared for one of three purposes: developing housing for low- to middle-income residents, for sale to neighbors who meet income guidelines or for use as “common areas,” according to a plan filed with the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.
Many of the lots that the city eventually hopes to develop will be held in a “land bank” -- waiting for the time when the real estate market improves so that it can sell the property.
The elimination of abandoned properties is part of Elkhart’s multi-tiered effort to check the downward economic spiral triggered by the collapse of the RV industry. Click here to read more about why leaders here and in many other cities consider the effort so important.
Chuck Pelley, owner of Pelley Excavating of Niles, Mich., the contractor on the job, said the program doesn’t only benefit neighbors. It also is helping keep his crews busy at a time when construction work has been extremely scarce.
“We’re licensed to do various types of work,” he said as he watched 1032 McKinley come tumbling down. “One of the reasons we did that was to be versatile for times when the economy fluctuates.”
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