Christopher O’Donnell | Tampa Tribune |
“Two years ago, Shanoah Washington’s home on Preston Street in the Melrose Mercy neighborhood was a gutted shell.
Thieves had ripped out the air handler and plumbing. Gone, too, were windows, electrical wiring and most of the kitchen.
The home attracted the attention of St. Petersburg City Council Chairman Karl Nurse, who bought it and spent $34,000 doing it up as a way to reduce blight in his district.
If all goes according to plan, Washington will go from renter to owner through a lease-to-buy program that would allow her to own a home for the first time in her life.
The home was among an estimated 5,000 in the city that banks foreclosed on during the recession. Many of them were in the poorest neighborhoods, including Midtown, where hundreds of vacant homes fell into disrepair and attracted criminals, including drug dealers.
With so many homes affected, the problems facing communities like Melrose Mercy border on overwhelming. But slowly, the city and nonprofit groups are transforming derelict properties into new homes, hoping that piece by piece they can turn around some of the most poverty-stricken neighborhoods and encourage residents to stay and to maintain their properties.
Using $8.3 million of federal stimulus money, the city has bought 86 derelict properties, with 23 rehabbed and sold and an additional 16 undergoing renovation.
The Banyan group, a St. Petersburg nonprofit organization, plans to raise $6.5 million in bonds to buy and renovate Citrus Grove apartment complex on 15th Street South.
Meanwhile, with much of his council district including Midtown, Nurse has been waging a one-man war against derelict properties, buying and fixing them up and selling them, sometimes at a loss.
The task the city is facing is huge.
Despite numerous local government programs, poverty, high unemployment and crime remain endemic in Midtown.
Roughly 25 percent of Midtown residents live at or below the federal poverty level, according to a Pinellas County study. Unemployment runs at about 16 percent, and residents are more likely to suffer from asthma, alcohol abuse, diabetes and other health issues.
Also, much of the housing in Midtown is aging. Within the Southside community redevelopment area, more than half of housing stock was built before 1960, making rehabs expensive.
Those problems were exacerbated by the real estate slump. Homes that were selling for more than $70,000 in 2007 slumped in value, some to less than $20,000.
Owing more on their properties than they were worth, many residents walked away, resulting in derelict homes that dragged down surrounding neighborhoods. According to one city study, almost 650 homes were either demolished or boarded up, compared with 360 throughout the rest of the city.”