CLEVELAND AND THE SURROUNDING SUBURBS WERE HIT HARD BY THE FORECLOSURE CRISIS AND THIS IS THE LATEST DEVELOPMENT IN THE RECOVERY. A RECYCLING CENTER FOR THE REMAINS OF BLIGHTED HOMES EMPTIED, AND ABANDONED BY FORECLOSURE OR HOMEOWNERS SIMPLY WALKING AWAY UNABLE OR UNWILLING TO MAINTAIN THEM. IN SOME AREAS OF CLEVELAND A QUARTER OF THE HOMES ARE NOW VACANT. KIM FIELDS: There were more families, more homeowners now its very distressed its not very clean and I don’t want to live like with bars on my window I don’t, and I want people to come over and not say oh my god look at the house next to you, that’s not what I want them to see, that’s not what I want to see when I walk out of my house. VO: KIM FIELDS LIVES IN THE WOODLAND HILLS NEIGHBORHOOD ON THE CITY’S PREDOMINANTLY AFRICAN-AMERICAN EAST SIDE. SHE BOUGHT HER FIRST HOME HERE IN 2001, JUST A FEW BLOCKS AWAY FROM THE HOUSE WHERE SHE WAS BORN. VO: FOR MOST OF THE COUNTRY THE RECESSION AND THE HOUSING CRISIS ENDED 7 YEARS AGO, BUT HOME PRICES HERE ARE STILL FALLING. HOMES ARE WORTH ON AVERAGE 70 TO 80% LESS THAN THEY WERE 15 YEARS AGO. KIM FIELDS: This house has been vacant since 2014 I believe.//And there’s another property there. So one two three four.. THERE ARE 6000 EMPTY HOMES ON THE EAST SIDE OF CLEVELAND. ERIC LOFTON LIVES DOWN THE BLOCK FROM FIELDS, NEXT TO ANOTHER RECENTLY EMPTIED HOUSE. FIELDS: this was a decent looking house too cause I saw the guy taking care of it. Eric: All new kitchen Kim: Are you serious, are you serious. Eric: The Bank still owns this property. They paid them to move out. And when they came over I told the guy someone is going to go in there as soon as they see them moving. They should have let the family just stay in, and then at least it would have been occupied wouldn’t have broken in. I am talking about not even an hour after they left someone was over here wiping the house out. Cleaning it out. //Hot water tank, water furnaces, everything gone. Stainless steel sinks were here. All of it gone. Its really bad, the whole area we don’t get a break. (SOME NAT HERE ABOUT HER CLEANING UP THE NEIGHBORHOOD) IT was much more stuff back here but when we did our community cleanup in april Community members helped to pick up 75% of the stuff, there was so much stuff in here // that’s what they do they just come and pull their trucks up here and dump. (trim) *****[00:12:50] Coming home every day and just riding down my street and seeing some of the houses that were so beautiful. And look at them just look at them now. RICHARD: (MVI_0076 8:54) I would like to think that the banks have a moral responsibility but it doesn’t seem they work on moral responsibility// RICHARD GOUDREAU IS WITH HARVARD COMMUNITY SERVICES CENTER, A LOCAL NONPROFIT. (NAT) THE CITY HAS BECOME SO OVERWHELMED BY THE VACANT AND BLIGHTED HOMES ITS NOW FALLEN ON GROUPS LIKE GOUDREAU’S AND CITIZENS TO HELP ENFORCE THE LAW. (NAT) EACH WEEK HE JOINS ACTIVIST ANITA GARDNER ON A TOUR OF EMPTY AND BLIGHTED HOUSES. (NATS) THEY INSPECT THE HOME’S EXTERIOR FOR VIOLATIONS AND FOLLOW UP ON COURT ORDERED REPAIRS. (NATS) ANITA: [00:12:16] Most black communities are targets. Easy targets because we don’t get together we don’t holler loud enough we don’t scream loud enough. And then when we do we’re violent. Or it was our fault. We don’t know what we’re talking about. If someone told you you could have the american dream, we’re like everyone else we want a house. RICHARD: (MVI_0076 8:54) These were all middle income, middle class worked at the steel plant, ford chevy chrysler, and the parts plants, those jobs left, the predatory lending came in, it was just a perfect storm of everything right in this area, and this is what you have left//people are just walking away from the properties. Just wholesale walking away. (CRASH) CHERYL: we’re still working to get families back into homeownership. But every house can’t be saved. SHERYL STEPHENS IS IN CHARGE OF DEMOLITIONS FOR THE COUNTY’S LAND BANK. IT’S A NON PROFIT ENTITY TASKED WITH ACQUIRING BLIGHTED PROPERTIES AND HOPEFULLY FINDING A PRODUCTIVE USE FOR THEM. OFTEN THAT MEANS TEARING THE STRUCTURES DOWN FIRST. (CRASH) CHERYL STEPHENS: We went from one hundred and fifty demos in the first year to last year we did it approximately eight hundred fifty. And this year we’re on track to do nine hundred fifty two thousand more.//When we started there were approximately twenty nine thousand thirty thousand or structures that were functionally obsolete vacant and blighted and condemned that we needed to demolish across the county //the Cuyahoga land bank and its partners have eliminated over 6000 properties in this process. CHERYL STEPHENS: So there are multiple reasons why we tear houses down. First of all the population of Greater Cleveland has been reduced over the last 20 years. // Now// the official count is below 400000 people. The number of structures we have in the city are in excess of the population numbers. ****VO: IT CAN COST $40 TO $90,000 TO REHAB A HOME AND MAKE IT LIVABLE FOR A FAMILY, SOMETIMES AS MUCH AS THE PRICE OF BUILDING A NEW ONE SOMEWHERE ELSE. BUT ONLY ABOUT $10000 TO DEMOLISH IT. EACH BLIGHTED STRUCTURE REMOVED ALSO HELPS BRING UP THE PROPERTY VALUES OF THE NEIGHBORHOOD. [00:00:00] In Ohio we have a very modest housing prices. And with low housing values it’s not the same as in New York City or Chicago or San Francisco. Where a structure and the plot of land it’s own are worth so much more. I mean the vacant partitions are selling for and we’re transferring them to non-profits for like $100 or if you’re an adjacent property owner for a hundred dollars countywide AT THAT RECYCLING PLANT THEY’RE RECEIVING THE REMAINS OF UP TO TEN HOMES A DAY, DESTINED TO BE TURNED INTO GARDEN MULCH OR BURNED FOR FUEL. SCOTT HINKLE IS THE OPERATIONS MANAGER. (SCOTT EXPLAINING THE PROCESS) We demo houses...goes across the belt. We have anywhere between 7 and 9 guys separating the concrete and wood. SCOTT: When you’re pushing it down a hill and you see a toy or something that wasn’t cleaned out, well you think there was someone living in it at one point. And it it makes you think// this was once in a neighborhood where someone lived, now what is going to happen to the neighborhood. And then you think its actually coming together its better the house is going down, the crime is going down, now the homeless people are not going go to be you know squatting there, the drug addicts. We need this, we needed this a long time ago. FOR KIM AND HER NEIGHBORS EACH HOUSE TORN DOWN IS BITTER SWEET. A DANGER AND EYE SORE TO THE NEIGHBORHOOD GONE, BUT HOMES THAT ONCE HELD FAMILIES ARE GONE TOO. THE WEALTH GAP BETWEEN BLACK AND WHITE HOUSEHOLDS REVERSED ITS TREND AND GREW IN THE YEARS FOLLOWING THE RECESSION. THE EFFECTS OF THAT COULD LAST FOR GENERATIONS... [00:09:30] Every day. I find a new house. Last summer. There was people living in the house of a kids playing on the lawn. And now I go by there in the doors open and use trash on along there is no curtains. There’s broken windows there because what happened. No it’s still happening. And it’s not going to stop. For a while. And I don’t know what’s going to make it stop.