A few weeks ago, I happened to notice the cute little house across the alley from me had been broken into. 2610 4th Street North is a property owned by the Department of Housing and Urban Development. It's been vacant ever since I've been living in Hawthorne, and although it definitely needs rehab work, the place is a nice enough starter home and reasonably priced to boot.
But when I saw that the window on the front porch was broke open, I called Best Assets (the property management entity for HUD houses in Minneapolis), 311, and a few of the neighbors along the block to make sure they knew there was a house open to trespass and to watch out for people who might be breaking in. Next door to this house is "Maples," a gorgeous home selling for a song. I checked out that place too, and thankfully it was tight as a drum.
More than two weeks have passed without Best Assets doing a thing to remedy their property's condition, and now the city has boarded it up. The irony here is that the deterioration HUD is allowing on one of their own houses makes it more and more likely that the city will come along and demolish this one. And if they do, where will the money come from? The federal government's Neighborhood Stabilization Program dollars.
Update to this story: the property has had its boards taken off, and a new door and window are in place.
ReplyDeleteJust ready now for the copper and woodwork theives!!!
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