Council OKs program to raze blighted buildings

The Houston City Council on Wednesday approved a program to scoop up dangerous properties left to rot in so many aging neighborhoods, raze them and resell the land.

Officials say the idea could more than double the number of buildings demolished each year, help the city recover more of the money it spends fighting blight and get the lots back on the tax rolls more quickly.

"Many of these properties have sat vacant and tax-delinquent for many years, some of them for 20 years," said Katye Tipton, Department of Neighborhoods director. "They've got a really rotten building on them, nobody is interested in buying this thing; I wouldn't. So, the city goes in, we clean up the property. Within 60 to 90 days we'll take it back to sale. Now, it's a much more appealing property."

The program would apply only to the roughly 40 percent of Houston's 4,317 dangerous buildings that are tax delinquent.

Those that do not sell at auction for at least the delinquent taxes owed, plus penalties and interest, can be acquired by the city and cleaned up for resale. The city would be responsible for maintenance, but would be first in line to recover its cleanup costs before other local governments get the taxes owed them.

Of these thousands of blighted shacks, strip centers and apartment complexes, most of which are clustered in older and minority neighborhoods, the city is on track to raze only 153 this fiscal year.

Hurdles have included a lack of resources, strict state laws that limit the city's ability to interfere with private properties, and often muddled ownership that makes it hard to hold someone responsible for a property's poor state.