TOLEDO, OH (WTOL) - There is good news in the fight against blight in Lucas County.
Money is coming the county's way to demolish vacant homes that are no longer inhabitable.
It's all part of a $25 billion agreement between the United States and the nation's biggest mortgage lenders.
Millions of dollars given to the county will be used to demolish blighted homes.
"If we can get rid of these blighted, vacant abandoned eyesores and put something, anything there, that will increase the tax roles, increase the tax collection in this office," said Lucas County Treasurer Wade Kapszukiewicz.
Irv Clark has lived on Clark Street in East Toledo his entire life and he's surrounded by vacant homes.
Mr. Clark's property value has dipped and he's been a repeated victim of crime.
"My house has been broken into once a year for four of the last five years to the point where my homeowners insurance company canceled me," said Clark.
Kapszukiewicz hopes new homes or even community gardens will replace the eyesores and revitalize neighborhoods like Clark Street and at the same time improve property values.
"The whole goal here is to stop that decline in values and to see those values going up in the right direction," said Kapszukiewicz.
Clark believes the city of Toledo should be more aggressive in rehabbing the homes, but if demolition is the only option, he supports it.
"They've all been vandalized. They've all been stripped of metal," said Clark.
Meanwhile, Kapszukiewicz says demolition is not an overnight solution to blight, but it's a step in the right direction.
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