2020 census data shows program’s success
Vacant homes are down, but Marion officials say more work needed
In the last decade in Marion, the city and county has seen its number of vacant homes drop by a little more than 23%.
In 2010, Census data showed Marion had roughly 3,143 houses that were deemed vacant. But since then, an aggressive effort from city and county officials led to numerous vacant homes being bought up and either restored or demolished. Fast forward 10 years later and between city led projects, county led projects and the creation of the Marion County Land Bank and more than 250 homes have been restored or demolished.
Now in 2021, Marion has roughly 2,416 vacant homes residing in the county and city. And in large part, Evelyn Warr-cummings, director and fair housing coordinator with the City and County Regional Planning Commission, said this drop is because of the efforts of the Land Bank and other entities throughout the last decade. However, due to changes from federal agencies like the EPA, the aggressive effort on vacant homes has slowed in recent years.
According to data from the Marion County Land Bank, from 2009 to 2013 a total of 132 vacant homes were demolished. Over the following three years, the number of vacant homes being demolished dropped to 51. While demolition efforts experienced an uptick to 70 between 2017 and 2020, the goal in 2021 is to demolish eight homes.
Warr-cummings said this decline is because roughly 60% of the homes in Marion are pre-war World II built meaning there’s a high risk these homes were made with lead-based paint or they contain high amounts of asbestosis. Because of this, additional steps and more expensive construction crews have to be called to have the house restored or demolished.
Since many of the vacant homes have been empty for years, she said a majority of them are late on back taxes or the original homeowner has either moved to a new state, or passed away. This causes the homes to first go through a sheriff’s auction and if they aren’t sold there, the homes can then move into the hands of the Land Bank.
However, getting the home into the hands of the Land Bank is a lengthy process, said Warr-cummings. The Land Bank has to determine if there is a living owner of the home, request records about taxes and go through the process of foreclosure. Once the foreclosure process is completed, they must conduct asbestosis
and lead-based paint studies to determine needs from construction crews.
Ultimately, Warr-cummings said the goal of these demolition and restoration projects is to provide more housing options in Marion; something she said the city and county desperately needs. And when it comes to housing options, she said Marion needs a little bit of everything; affordable apartments for college students, residential homes for families and single-living condos for workers without families.
According to the 2020 Census data, housing units in Marion dropped by 1.7% from 27,834 to 27,348. Through this time, occupied homes have increased by a percent from 24,691 in 2010 to 24,932 in 2020. With Franklin and Delaware counties predicted to expand to the north, Warr-cummings expects Marion to see an uptick in population over the coming years.
To restore, or to build new?
After the Marion County Land Bank becomes the property owner of a vacant home, what happens next?
Warr-cummings said vacant homes get split into two categories; those that have enough value to be restored, and those that are destroyed since the cost of restoring outweighs the cost of demolition. For context, she said they typically try to keep restoration projects under $50,000 as profit margins quickly dwindle after that dollar amount.
Ken Lengieza, special projects director of more than 40 years with the Regional Planning Commission, said one of the first things they inspect is the roof of the home. If the roof of the house is caved in or showing major holes, he said they often elect to destroy the home as water
damage is detrimental to the wooden structure.
However, just destroying the vacant home isn’t all that the Land Bank is after. Instead, Warr-cummings said they want to have a plan for the space before moving forward with demolition. This is because the land would still be under ownership of the Land Bank which would require upkeep.
Warr-cummings said they prefer to have a buyer in mind when purchasing a vacant property. She cited downtown Marion as a prime example as to why this works. With downtown Marion seeing housing options at places like the Harding Centre filling up, more businesses are flocking to the area, which creates economic improvements.
This is why Warr-cummings and Legieza refer to the Land Bank as a tool for the community. Individuals can approach the Land Bank with a property they would like to purchase and the Land Bank can work as a lesion to ensure things go smoothly.
With the old age of these homes, City Councilmen Josh Daniels, I-AT Large, said the best thing the city and county can do is create a quicker foreclosure process on blighted and vacant homes. By doing so, he said this could improve cost efficiency as home owners wouldn’t build up so much in back taxes and construction crews wouldn’t require as much specialty equipment to do a demolition project.
Daniels, who owns Josh Daniels Excavating and Construction in Marion, said his business has torn down roughly 75 vacant homes in the county; as a City Council member, Daniels is legally unable to bid on vacant home projects in the city. In nearly all of these homes, he said the damages caused by weather have made these homes completely inhabitable. “I don’t want to throw anyone out of a functioning, operating house,” Daniels said. “But if the house is already vacant, who are you hurting by going ahead and expediating the foreclosure?”
Daniels said destroying a regular home is roughly $7,000 while a home with asbestos is around $20,000. This is because special trash bags and dumpsters are required to safely haul debris from the home plus construction crews have to wear specialty equipment to protect their lungs.
Daniels said much of these issues predate the creation of the Land Bank and all of the city’s and county’s efforts in the last decade. He said previous administrations made efforts to foreclose on vacant homes, however, many of the foreclosed homes just sat for upwards of 15 years causing major wear and tear on them. Now, it’s an uphill battle of removing these homes while also tackling the other vacant homes that continue to pop up.
This is where Daniels sees another issue with vacant homes that are still standing in Marion; the potential for crime. He, along with Warr-cummings, both said the longer a house sits vacant, the higher the chance the home will become a place for crime to take place. Because of the concern for crime, Warrcummings said the Land Bank tries to focus on vacant homes near churches, schools and parks for demolition or restoration.
Looking ahead to the future
Both Warr-cummings and Daniels agreed; additional money given to the Land Bank would be helpful in addressing the vacant home issue in Marion.
By giving the Land Bank more money, Daniels said they would be able to hire on an extra attorney who could focus purely on the expediated foreclosure process. In turn, this could accelerate the Land Bank’s ability to move in on vacant homes and possibly get ahold of them before the wear and tear becomes too much.
Daniels said this could come as a double win for Marion; not only could houses be saved from expensive demolitions, they could be quickly restored and flipped into a livable housing unit for the community. This could limit the amount of back taxes property owners build up, reduce the amount of time a vacant home sits on a property and bring in missing property taxes which would go back to the county or city once the homes are filled.
With the city recently receiving its first portion of the $1.7 million in ARPA money, Daniels is hopeful Council can discuss possible ways to give some of this money to the Land Bank.
Reach Story by Mitch Hooper at (740)244-9935 or bhooper@gannett.com.