GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) – A year after Target 8 investigated bank-owned homes that became neighborhood eyesores, several dilapidated houses remain empty and off the market.
In February 2015, Target 8 found 86 Grand Rapids homes were owned by big banks for at least a year. The majority of those homes – 55 of them – were foreclosed on in 2013.
DECAYING DIGS
Target 8 investigators found the house at 1541 Turner Ave. NW was still empty and not for sale. The home’s door was loosely padlocked, but can be pushed open a crack, just as it was a year ago. The Turner Avenue home has been owned by a bank since 2009, when the Great Recession hit.
Like the house on Turner, the foreclosed home at 1007 11th NW has been decaying through the seasons for four years now.
“They haven’t been over, done nothing to the house. It’s just an eyesore,” neighbor Roger Wylie said last fall. And it’s getting worse. Last week, Target 8 found siding falling off the home.
SIGNS OF IMPROVEMENT
Three of the places Target 8 is tracking were showing signs of improvement.
Neighbor Jessica Skelton said during the four years it’s been owned by the bank, the home at 558 Highland SE has turned into a hazard – attracting drinkers, dopers, trash and trouble.
Skelton and some of her friends had been cleaning up the mess outside themselves; then contractors began showing up.
“They fixed the beams because one of them snapped,” she explained.
GR big bank foreclosures
2013: 55 homes
2012: 16 homes
2011: 12 homes
2009: 2 homes
2007: 1 homes
The crews have been back to make other repairs since then.
Last winter, confusion kept the house at 919 Adams Street SE frigid, causing pipes to break, ruining its wood floor.
Target 8 found someone bought the home last September and is now renovating the place.
Repairs are also underway at 124 Graceland NE. After holding onto the property for three years, the bank sold it to a young couple that’s fixing it up.
“It’s wonderful. We’re going to have a nice place across the street and hopefully good neighbors,“ said neighbor Diane Ensley.
‘WOULD YOU LIVE NEXT DOOR TO THIS?’
It’s a different story at 214 Dale Street NE.
Progress is slow and it Helen Lehman, executive director New Development Corporation, is fed up with it.
“We would love to rehab this house,” she said. “I’ve got a grant that could rehab this house, but we can’t get Bank of America to even list this property.”
In September, Target 8 found long grass surrounding the home, city mow orders stuck on the door and neighbor Dave Akers threatening to “get goats for the front yard.”
Lehman said she’s talked to bank employees in four states.
“I sent pictures to the CEO and said, ‘Would you live next door to this?’ And then I get a form letter that says, ‘We can’t discuss the loan, It’s private.’ Drives me nuts,” she added.
Lehman’s continued complaints got action in November 2014, when a crew spray painted the home as the weather turned icy.
However, the paint is already peeling and fading and it appears the painters missed some parts of the siding.
In November, Bank of America told Target 8 they’ve already done considerable renovation and repair but have to do more before the house can go on the market. That’s because the foreclosed mortgage was insured by the federal government and it won’t list the house for sale until the bank fixes it.
Lehman said that’s a nationwide problem. Last year, one bank official said the foreclosure crisis overwhelmed the banks and they’ve been trying to work their way out if it ever since.
“I think it doesn’t impact them,” Lehman said.
She said it’s harder to get action from big nationwide banks.
“I know the guys at the smaller banks that are locally controlled, I know that I can drive them past here and say, ‘What the heck?’ I can’t do that with the folks at Bank of America,” she explained.
When Target 8 last checked, the boards were off the windows of 214 Dale, but it’s still not for sale.
