He owns house on a dead-end street with a dead-end future
City of Gary files litigation over eminent domain
Dennis Wilson lives on a dead-end street with a dead-end future.
The Gary resident lives in the mostly deserted Inland Manor subdivision on the outskirts of the city’s Miller section. It’s no longer much of a neighborhood with only six homes occupied, compared to more than 100 houses in its heyday.
In 1957, Wilson’s late parents built the house, located on Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore property just off U.S. 12, five minutes away from Lake Michigan beaches. Wilson, 65, has lived there since their deaths in the early 1990s, next door to another home he owns on South Sullivan Street.
“It’s the only home I’ve known in my life besides a summer cabin in Monticello,” he said.
In 1995, the National Lakeshore announced budget cuts forcing it to stop acquiring leaseback homes in Inland Manor, such as Wilson’s two modest homes.
“We have, for all intents and purposes, run out of money for land acquisition,” former IDNL Superintendent Dale Engquist told the Post-Tribune for a story that year.
Many of those homeowners were counting on the park’s property acquisition program when their properties were still in good condition. They also were counting on stipends from the park for relocation and moving expenses. It never materialized for many of them, including Wilson who born and raised in that subdivision.
“Basically I’m stuck,” he said in that 1995 story.
He has saved the story in a box of newspaper clippings about his long-forgotten neighborhood. Like tens of thousands of motorists, I’ve driven past those homes hundreds of times while cruising along U.S. 12 near County Line Road, never once turning to visit it. After all these years, Wilson told me the same thing he told a Post-Tribune reporter in 1995.
“I’m still stuck,” Wilson told me Wednesday when I visited his house.
“For 26 years, the national park has said it doesn’t have any money to buy our homes. And now the city of Gary is trying to buy these remaining homes,” he said. “But they’re offering me just $48,000 for this home — one-third of what it’s worth. I can’t find another place to live for $48,000. Worse yet, they’re offering me only $15,000 for my other house. You can’t even buy a new car for that money.”
His 74-year-old neighbor, who’s lived in her home most of her life, got a similar offer from
the city.
“They offered her $15,000 to move out and beat it,” Wilson said in disgust. “Where can she go to live for just $15,000? It’s a damn shame.”
In early 2020, Gary Sanitary District initiated the process of acquiring a number of properties in the Inland Manor area. The properties were appraised and offers to purchase were extended to homeowners, who were able to consider their offer for a period of at least four months.
“Some property owners did choose to enter into discussions at that time, and ultimately agreed to sell their properties to
Gary Sanitary District for a mutually-acceptable amount,” said Jewell Harris Jr., the Crown Point attorney representing the city.
“Generally speaking, these acquisitions are necessary to Gary Sanitary District for purposes of regulatory compliance. And also to improve the functionality of the sewer system and enhance Gary Sanitary District’s ability to provide quality services to the city as a whole,” Harris said.
Gary Sanitary District is a governmental entity with the statutory ability to acquire properties through the process of eminent domain. Litigation was initiated in March in regard to the remaining properties, he said.
Those remaining neighbors have hired their own attorney to stop the city’s acquisition efforts.
“It’s either hire an attorney or be homeless,” said Wilson, a post office retiree. “I’m on a fixed income. I can’t afford to buy another home. And at my age I don’t want to get another 30-year home loan. Hell, I’d be 95 when it gets paid off.”
During this process, Gary Sanitary District has remained “amenable to discussion” regarding a mutually acceptable purchase price for each affected property, Harris said.
“The eminent domain process, by its nature, is designed to lead to a somewhat predictable result through which homeowners receive compensation for the value of their properties, and Gary Sanitary District intends to participate in the process in good faith,” he said.
Good faith is a hollow phrase of legalese to Wilson, who shared his thoughts with me on the front porch of his home. (Watch a video on my Facebook page.)
“Look around, you can’t beat living out here. We’re in a national park. Wildlife is all around us,” he said.
On cue, a group of wild turkeys casually strolled past his home as if they were next door neighbors going for a midafternoon walk.
“It’s been like this since I was a kid,” Wilson said. “But what’s gonna happen to this neighborhood if the city has its way?”
In the 1990s, a large percentage of Inland Manor homeowners petitioned to have their property purchased by the park.
“I couldn’t just sit here in this house trying to predict what was going to happen in the future,” former resident Judy Delvalle told the Post-Tribune in 1995.
Twenty-six years later, Wilson finds himself in the exact situation.
“Here I am just sitting here in this house with nowhere else to go,” he said, staring off down the road.