Foreclosure Blight Found Attractive By Some

While foreclosure blight, manifested by vacant & abandoned homes, broken or boarded up windows, weeds, refuse left by those using the empty houses as garbage dumps, rain-sopped newspapers in the driveway, and "green" pools may be considered repugnant by most, there are some groups who find such conditions quite appealing, as evidenced by these stories:

• Casselberry, Florida - Central Florida Neighborhood Getting Ratted Out: Some people living in the Carriage Hills Estates in Casselberry say the increasing number of abandoned houses is causing a rat infestation. [...] “It’s gross when I’ve got holes in my house,” said resident Dave Fulton. “They're coming through the roof. Through the walls of my house.”

• Spring Hill, Florida - Foreclosure's Rancid Odor: Foreclosures stink. Not just for the homeowner but, as Doug Ellison will tell you, the neighbors left behind. In Ellison's situation, the house next door [...] has been sitting vacant since mid June. [...] He's trapping rats in his backyard now. And as the day warms up, maggots squirm on the putrid bags of refuse.

• Vallejo, California - One Vallejo Neighborhood Hard Hit by Foreclosure Crisis: The blight is not attracting very many prospective buyers, but it is attracting vermin, which is something [homeowner Dave] Abbitt has witnessed first hand. "I’ve seen a lot more rat droppings. Just the other day I had a big rat in the yard that my dog might have killed,” said Abbitt.

• New York City - Runnin' Scared: The Gentrification Project That Turned into a Rat Castle on Ludlow: In the abandoned building itself, rats have taken over, and a 2,000-square-foot retail space that could have brought in $25,000 a month is now ankle-deep in rat sh[**].

• Manassas, Virginia - Shuttered Homes, Thriving Wildlife: Among the opportunistic wildlife attracted by foreclosure blight, according to this story, are rats, snakes, mosquitos, ticks, and other members of the animal kingdom.

• Merced, California - City works to tackle foreclosure eyesores: Stagnant water in swimming pools becomes a breeding ground for mosquitoes. Worst of all, dark houses with no signs of life houses attract vandals, drug dealers, and other criminals ... .

• Tucson, Arizona - Bees Buzz Tucson Neighborhood: In one local Tucson neighborhood when the humans moved out, the bees moved in. These pests have become well established and are creating serious problems for the neighborhood. [...] The bees are now terrorizing the entire area.

• Bradenton, Florida - Owners of bee-infested house face pressure to remove them: For more than a month, people in the neighborhood have been worried about the growing number of bees that have moved into one house. They say the number of bees is growing everyday. The house is empty and going through foreclosure, and is owned by the Bank of New York.

Go here, go here, and go here for other posts on vacant homes leaving their mark on neighborhoods. neighborhood destruction from foreclosures kappa