Staff photo / R. Michael Semple Siegel Excavating Co. of Edinburg, Pa., demolishes a house at 1825 Stewart Ave. on Youngstown’s East Side last week for the Mahoning County Land Bank.

Demolitions by the numbers

Number of homes demolished in Youngstown by year

• 2007: 518

• 2008: 261

• 2009: 376

• 2010: 524

• 2011: 306

• 2012: 324

• 2013: 531

• 2014: 272

• 2015: 407

• 2016: 407

• 2017: 621

• 2018: 646

• 2019: 513

• 2020: 189

• 2021: 223

• 2022: 170

• 2023: 246

• 2024: 405

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YOUNGSTOWN — With about 7,000 vacant houses demolished in Youngstown in the past 18 years, those who have played major roles in that effort are working on programs to bring people back to the city and help current residents.

“It’s all part of a housing strategy started years ago to remediate the blight and start working to build new housing in the city,” said Michael Durkin, Youngstown’s code enforcement and blight remediation superintendent. “We’re not there yet, but we’re heading in the right direction.”

Since 2007, 6,939 vacant houses have been demolished with more than 500 taken down in six of those years. The most was 646 in 2018.

There will be 405 demolished by the end of this year, Durkin said. That is the most since 2019 – and greatly helped by a state grant, he said. Demolitions have slowed in recent years because such a large dent was put into the number of houses that needed to come down, particularly between 2015 and 2019, Durkin said.

There aren’t that many left to take down, Durkin said.

Also, some houses that were slated to be demolished have been saved through city programs, largely funded by its American Rescue Plan dollars, and efforts by the Youngstown Neighborhood Development Corp., Durkin said.

Ian Beniston, YNDC executive director, said: “Blight remediation was needed and the city and its partners have reduced the historic backlog of houses that needed to come down. We’ve all but eliminated housing in need of demolition.”

The city benefited from state grants to demolish vacant residential houses as well as by putting some of its own money into the effort.

The Mahoning County Land Bank has played a major role in helping to demolish dilapidated houses in Youngstown, receiving three state grants since 2012 to take down vacant structures throughout the county, but with a focus on Youngstown as it has the greatest need.

The land bank received a Moving Ohio Forward grant in 2012 from the state with 307 vacant houses demolished and about 70% of them in Youngstown, said Debora Flora, the land bank’s executive director.

A Neighborhood Initiative Program grant allowed the land bank to demolish about 1,100 residential structures, about 70% of them in Youngstown, between 2014 and 2020, Flora said.

A 2022 Building Demolition and Site Revitalization Program grant is still being used and has taken down about 500 vacant properties with about two-thirds in Youngstown, Flora said. The work from the grant should be finished by the middle of next year.

For Youngstown, which had thousands of vacant homes in need of demolition years ago, there are about 200 left, Durkin and Flora said.

“In 2012, Youngstown had the highest per capita rate of abandoned properties,” Flora said. “The infusion of money from the state to the land bank has been instrumental in taking those properties down. In terms of demolition for Youngstown, it’s much more manageable now. It’s not thousands, it’s a couple of hundred.”

The benefits of taking down the vacant houses are many, Flora said.

“The arson rate has fallen and it’s directly related to the demolition of these abandoned houses,” Flora said. “We don’t have the arson targets that we used to have.”

Youngstown has had about 15 arsons a year for the past few years compared to close to 200 10 years ago.

“We still get arsons, but it’s much less than what we had,” said Youngstown fire Chief Barry Finley. “It’s happened since all of the vacant houses were torn down. Arsons are way down and the demolitions are a major part of it. Our fires have dropped dramatically since houses were torn down.”

Finley said the large amount of vacant houses that used to be in Youngstown was “a safety issue for firefighters and residents. We want to make the city as safe as possible for everyone and this has been a big help.”

Taking down blighted houses, Flora said, also reduces the number of places for hoarding in unsafe structures.

“Residents who had empty houses next to them or in their neighborhood for years are relieved to see them gone because it was a direct threat to their safety,” Flora said. “It not only increases their physical security, but it makes their homes more valuable.”

Beniston said: “I’ve seen immense change in the city in those 14 years (since YNDC was created). We’ve all but eliminated houses in need of demolition.”

YNDC’s focus, Beniston said, is on revitalizing the city through the renovation of vacant housing units, providing repair work – primarily to roofs – and building new homes.

YNDC has renovated 178 once-vacant housing units and repaired 2,019, including more than 1,000 roof replacements since 2010, Beniston said.

It also counseled 2,263 individuals on homeownership and helped 623 people purchase homes, Beniston said.

NEW CONSTRUCTION

Not including downtown apartments and those around the Youngstown State University campus, about 20 new single-family houses have been built in the city in the past 15 years, Flora said.

But YNDC is working to change that, Beniston said.

The agency has built 12 new homes in the city, including three on Bernard Street on the city’s South Side.

YNDC broke ground last month on six new single-family dwellings on Mineral Springs Avenue, a street on the South Side that was the site of blight and vacant structures. A $2.4 million grant from the state’s Welcome Home Ohio program, obtained by the land bank, is funding that work.

Also, work will start construction soon on three other homes on Bernard Street, Beniston said.

YNDC has an additional 35 new housing units it will build in the city, including 16 from a second $5 million Welcome Home Ohio grant obtained by the land bank, Beniston said.

“There’s demand and there’s interest in new units in the city,” he said. “It’s been a long time since we’ve had this much new construction in the city.”

As an added incentive, anyone who purchases a newly constructed house in Youngstown is eligible for a 100% 15-year property tax abatement, Beniston said.

Beniston said: “The first goal is cleaning the city up with the 7,000 demolitions and stabilizing the neighborhoods that are in the middle of the spectrum – they can go one way or the other. We focus on those neighborhoods and we’re showing growth. It’s slow, but it’s there. In the neighborhoods where we focused, vacancies have decreased and investment can be documented. There are neighborhoods in the city with significant improvement in the past decade.”

Most notable is the Idora Neighborhood and the Glenwood corridor on the city’s South Side, where YNDC started focusing its attention.

In addition to new and renovated housing, YNDC renovated the Glenwood Plaza and other commercial buildings on and near Glenwood Avenue, Beniston said.

“We’re trying to pair houses with commercial space,” he said. “We want to bring in needs and wants.”

That includes laundry services, restaurants, coffee shops and doctors offices, he said.

CITY HOUSING PROGRAMS

Meanwhile, the city has set aside $21 million from its ARP allocation for housing programs. That’s about 25% of the $82,775,370 ARP allocation received by the city.

Mayor Jamael Tito Brown said: “We’re focusing on those middle neighborhoods – those that can go from good to great or could go from good to bad.”

He added: “We’re at a point where we have a good handle on demoing homes. Now we need to start developing those neighborhoods.”

The city set aside $3 million in ARP funding to pay for 236 new roofs at no cost to residents receiving them, Durkin said. The program is administered by YNDC and Habitat for Humanity of Mahoning Valley. That funding is in addition to the more than 1,000 roof replacements done since 2010 by YNDC.

“We were able to save those houses and get some of them off the demolition list,” Durkin said.

It set aside $5 million to create At Home in Youngstown, which provides up to $10,000 for down payment and closing costs and up to an additional $15,000 for energy-efficient upgrades. The program is administered by Huntington Bank.

In addition, YNDC recently received a $705,000 grant in partnership with Huntington to provide down payment assistance of up to $18,000 per unit to 30 people in the area.

Beniston said the city and the YNDC funding could be combined, giving someone $28,000 in total towards a down payment.

The city recently selected the 717 Credit Union to administer three programs, using $13 million in ARP funds.

The largest program is $8 million for the new construction and / or rehabilitation of quality affordable housing with the other efforts being $3 million to provide up to $10,000 in low-interest loans to qualified homeowners to improve and update the exterior of their houses and $2 million in a revolving loan fund for landlords to make renovations, repairs and / or address housing code violations.

The $8 million Youngstown Affordable Loan Program would be parlayed into $35 million worth of discounted mortgage financing.

Those participating would get a 2% rate reduction and not have to pay closing costs, with 717 would pay those fees.

Through the program, based on current rates, the principal and interest payment on a $100,000 loan would be less than $500 a month.

To begin development, 717 would create a $5 million revolving commercial development fund to be used to rehabilitate vacant downtown buildings into residential condos, build homes on vacant lot and develop neighborhoods. After renovation or construction, the units would be sold to individual buyers and the funds recuperated to be invested in additional projects.

The $3 million Residential Facade Program would provide 1% interest loans of up to $10,000 for five years or a dollar-for-dollar match up to $10,000 to qualifying homeowners in the city to improve and update the exterior of their homes and address any cited or potential code violations.

The intent of the program is to stabilize and increase the value of homes in Youngstown.

Eligible improvements include house painting, installation or replacement of shutters or awnings, window replacements, sidewalk or driveway replacements, siding replacement, step replacement or repairs, and garage repairs.

The $2 million Landlord Revolving Loan Fund will allow property owners to borrow up to $50,000 per single-family property and up to $100,000 for multi-unit houses at 2% interest for up to five years.

The money would allow landlords to make renovations, repairs or address housing code violations.

The program requires landlords to maintain the property for five years and not increase rent to current tenants during the same time frame. A sale would require the landlord to repay the loan immediately.

“It’s cool that instead of tearing down, we’re building anew and improving,” Durkin said. “These programs are going to help.”