ASHTABULA, Ohio — After nature powered its own slow demolition for years, it only took crews about an hour to tear down a vacant home on West 38th Street, which was the first in what's expected to be a dozen demolitions across the city.
The demolition comes after the state awarded Ashtabula County Land Bank $609,000 through its still relatively-new Demolition and Site Revitalization Program.
“We had a good inventory of the bad that we were able to come to the table when they said [to] get our list together," said Ashtabula City Manager Jim Timonere.
The handful of crumbling foundations across Ashtabula only adds up to a small fraction of the nearly 3,700 similar demolition projects approved across 87 of Ohio's counties through the program.
Timonere pointed out that blighted homes often reduce the property value of neighboring homes, which can make it difficult even in a prosperous housing market.
"I’ve seen the worst of the worst," Timonere said. "There have been remnants from the 2008 mortgage crisis that we’re still dealing with today."
The Building Demolition and Site Revitalization Program was created in 2021 with the help of $150 million allocated by the Ohio General Assembly.
“These investments lead to revitalization at its finest,” said Lt. Gov. Jon Husted in a news release last year. “It takes blighted properties that are a scar on the landscape of a community and turns them into parks, housing or thriving businesses.”
How a house becomes an eyesore - The story of 716 West 38th Street
For years, it was the neighbor nobody liked, with an attitude and appearance that stole the spotlight and not in a good way.
Louise Stafford scowled each and every time she had to look out her front window and see the decaying home across West 38th Street in Ashtabula.
"House is pretty much contaminated," she said. "It used to be a nice-looking house. The old man passed away, his grandson took over and decided to make it a drug house."
Even the house's previous owner used that same term, a drug house, to describe the forgotten home.
"There was a lot of theft, there was a lot of drug usage and a lot of things going on at that house that I am absolutely 100% not proud of," 25-year-old Steven Graham said.
From inside Grafton Correctional Institution, Graham detailed how he inherited the home right after his grandfather and mother passed away.
At the age of 21 and without a job and grieving, Graham watched as the aging roof and his own life quickly crumbled.
Graham, convicted of multiple theft charges, is expected to be released from prison in 2025.
"I feel ashamed about it because I turned my grandfather’s family home into a so-called trap house," he reflected. "It was my addiction taking over my way of thinking."
After Graham's run-ins with the law, the Ashtabula County Land Bank and the City of Ashtabula seized the property and added it to their demolition list.
Despite knowing that his family home is now a cleared plot of land, Graham doesn't harbor resentment or anger - far from it.
"I’d like to just let go of it," he said. "I've been holding on to the house and the memories from the house and my grandfather; it's been holding me back from what I need to do emotionally, mentally and spiritually."
In many cases, including the home on West 38th Street, the property will likely become vacant land owned by the Ashtabula County Land Bank.
"Ours is an older community where the houses were built kind of on top of each other," Timonere added. "Now having green space next to the houses has been a big plus."
In addition to the state-issued grants, Alex Iarocci, Ashtabula County Land Bank executive director, told News 5 the Ashtabula County Land Bank has demolished 240 buildings across the county thanks to $4.3 million in funding secured over the years.
"We currently own 58 vacant lots within Ashtabula city that had houses on them that we demolished," Iarocci said. "We still own them, and we are trying to figure out creative ways to repurpose them and reintegrate them into the urban fabric."
A system too slow to step in
Among the handful on hand to watch one of the county's demolitions was Angie Maki-Cliff, the Ashtabula County Land Bank chairperson, enjoying a tangible sign of prosperity.
But that prosperity can come at a high price tag, well into the tens of thousands of dollars for a single home.
That's why Maki-Cliff wants a clearer path to preserve some homes rather than level them.
"There’s this waiting game to get through the system," she explained.
In her other role as county treasurer, she sees homes when a home first becomes delinquent on its property taxes.
"I know the homeowner is deceased and I have the obituary in my hand and I can't find any living relatives," she explained. "The problem is they’re just now delinquent, and I have to wait."
A waiting game that she told News 5 can take years to go through the bureaucratic red tape and transfer to a county and its land bank.
More than enough time, she says, for a home to go from liveable to beyond repair.
"Now they’re not rehabable," she said. "Had we been able to move faster, we may have been able to rehab that home."
Clay LePard is a special projects reporter at News 5 Cleveland. Follow him on Twitter @ClayLePard or on Facebook Clay LePard News 5.
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