‘It’s utterly ridiculous;’ Neighbors say city is slow to remove abandoned, vacant buildings

DAYTON — A group of concerned Dayton residents are reaching out to city officials and raising concerns about a group of abandoned, nuisance houses in Dayton.

The group said they were upset with the city’s pace to demolish nuisance properties, specifically a group of four homes in the 300 block of Adelite Avenue.

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Neighbors told News Center 7 that at least one of the houses have been abandoned for at least a decade. That specific house has trash all over the porch or it’s roof was partially collapsed. Neighbors said it needs to be taken down.

“It’s utterly ridiculous. It makes the whole neighborhood look bad,” Jerry Mosley, of Dayton, said.

Janice Swaine, of Dayton, agreed and said she thinks the city needs to demolish all the old, abandoned houses across the city.

The City of Dayton announced last month that they would be spending nearly $1 million to take down nearly 100 abandoned and vacant buildings to help with neighborhood revitalization.

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That money will be in addition to the $15 million they city will be taking from the federal American rescue plan to help demolish. City of Dayton City Manager Shelley Dickstein previously told News Center 7 that the federal funding will help the city work toward demolishing roughly 1,000 homes over the next three years.

Mosley said he thinks using the federal money to help will make a difference with the demolition.

The City of Dayton said that they reached out to the resident that raised the initial concerns about this group of houses. In a statement, the city said the resident declined their offer to discuss the properties.

The city told News Center 7 that buildings are added to the nuisance list based on the condition of the structure of the structure and buildings deemed a hazard by the Fire Marshal or that pose a threat to adjacent property are demolished first.

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