For a major hotel, like we did a couple of years ago, it's different because of the scale and size of the building. We have an outside contractor do a building the size of a hotel. The demolition was bigger then the city could handle. |
I think the guys have fun most of the time they are destroying a building. A lot of the houses are built in a certain fashion where it doesn't take too much to bring it down. |
It is funded by a grant by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. |
Some people think that it's a fast process and some probably think that it's not fast enough. |
The purpose of the program is to remove vacant and abandoned structures. In all of these cases, the abandoned houses are usually fire hazards, where drugs are dealt or are a harbor for juveniles. |
There are a few ways that we find out about vacant houses that need to be torn down. Either neighbors call about the vacant houses or our staff find the houses. |
There's a large segment of the population that doesn't know what's allowed and what isn't. |
We hope that at some point, either the housing department will build new homes or that a private person will buy the land to build a new house. |
What has to happen in order for a house to be brought down are a lot of legal things. We have to provide a notice to the owners and that takes X number of days. |