Palm Beach County Feeling The Pinch Caused By Vacant Homes

In Palm Beach County, Florida, WPEC-TV Channel 12's I-Team is doing a series of "Clean It Up" investigative reports on the havoc that vacant houses, many in foreclosure or already bank-owned, are creating for neighbors, the neighborhood, code enforcement officers, and local municipalities operating on tight budgets throughout the area. Among the problems are rotting homes creating health and safety hazards, unfinished new homes abandoned by builders, overgrown landscapes attracting rats and snakes, property used as dumping grounds, and homes being broken into and used by local teens to host unauthorized, unsupervised parties.

Municipalities are feeling the squeeze on their budgets, given their limited resources for additional code enforcement, maintenance workers used to clean up and maintain the abandoned homes' exterior, and police in responding to calls involving home break-ins, burglaries, vandalism, and teen beer bashes at the vacant homes.

Go here (video only) for Channel 12's "Clean It Up" series of investigative reports.

Go here for other posts on vacant homes leaving its mark on neighborhoods. neighborhood destruction from foreclosures I