WV Program That Helped Tackle Abandoned Buildings is Running Out of Money

From their house on Charleston’s, West Virginia’s West Facet, Tina and Matt Glaspey watched the home on the nook of First Avenue and Fitzgerald Road go downhill quick.

A household with a younger daughter left as a result of they didn’t really feel protected. The subsequent proprietor died. After that, the police had been responding commonly as individuals broke into the vacant house.

The Glaspeys say that in simply two years, the small brick home went from occupied to condemned, left with out energy or water, repeatedly entered by squatters.

“In the future, we observed a brilliant orange sticker on the door saying the constructing was not protected for habitation,” Tina stated. “It exhibits how shortly issues can flip, in simply two years, when nothing is finished to cope with these properties.”

Metropolis officers say the home is following the identical path as lots of of different vacant properties throughout Charleston, which slowly deteriorate till they develop into unsafe and are added to the town’s precedence demolition record, sometimes together with about 30 buildings at a time.

Till this 12 months, a state program helped communities tear these buildings down, stopping them from turning into security hazards for neighborhoods and harming property values.

A statewide survey 4 years in the past estimated that almost 8,000 constructions required demolition that may price roughly $150 million. Lawmakers funded the hassle utilizing $30 million in federal pandemic aid funds to reimburse native governments.

However that cash is now depleted. There isn’t any statewide demolition program left, no substitute funding, and no laws to maintain it operating, leaving municipalities on their very own to soak up the prices or go away vacant buildings standing.

Throughout West Virginia, vacant properties improve whereas a state program designed to assist runs out of cash

The state’s Demolition Landfill Help Program was established in 2021 and was funded a 12 months later with federal COVID-19 restoration funds.

Administered by means of the Division of Environmental Safety, the fund reimbursed native governments for the demolition of deserted buildings that they couldn’t afford on their very own.

The state survey was step one in this system to find out the scope of the necessity and assess native authorities capability to handle it. It was distributed to all 55 counties and greater than 180 municipalities.

In simply two years, about 1,800 constructions had been demolished. At the moment, about 240 demolitions are ongoing, however the final of the state’s funding has been dispersed.

Nonetheless, the necessity is much better.

Carrie Staton, director of the West Virginia Brownfields Help Heart, has labored with communities on deserted buildings for about 14 years. She stated most counties don’t have the sources, funding or staffing to handle dilapidated housing on their very own.

“We’re simply so rural and so universally rural. Different states have at the very least a few main metro areas that may help this work,” she stated. “We don’t. It simply takes longer to do every thing.”

Charleston has Spent Thousands and thousands Demolishing Vacant Buildings

Because the state’s largest metropolis, Charleston has extra instruments than most native governments, together with entry to federal funds that smaller communities don’t have.

That has allowed the town to spend greater than $12 million over the previous seven years demolishing over 700 unsafe and dilapidated constructions.

However John Butterworth, a planner for the town, stated Charleston nonetheless relied on state demolition funding to assist cowl these prices, which averaged about $10,000 per property, together with any environmental cleanup.

“It’s an actual price,” he stated. “It’s a crucial one to maintain neighbors protected, however it is extremely costly.”

He stated the town acquired $500,000 from the state program throughout its final spherical of funding to assist tear down properties that drew repeated complaints from neighbors.

“I believe individuals are actually relieved after we can say that the home that’s been boarded up for a 12 months or extra is coming down,” he stated. “The place the priority usually comes from neighbors is, what comes subsequent?”

One vacant house on Grant Road had fallen into disrepair earlier than being demolished in Could of final 12 months.

Cracks stuffed the partitions. Dust and moldy particles had been caked on the flooring. Damaged glass and boarded-up home windows littered the property as crops overtook the roof and yard.

Ultimately, the town was capable of get the proprietor to donate the property, which was then given to Habitat for Humanity as a part of its home-building program.

Now, the property is being rebuilt from scratch. Development crews have already constructed the inspiration, porch and body, and it’s anticipated to be completed throughout the 12 months after its groundbreaking final October.

Andrew Blackwood, govt director of Habitat for Humanity of Kanawha and Putnam counties, stated the property stood for at the very least 5 years, deteriorating. The house had indicators of vandalism and water harm and was fully unsalvageable.

He stated that of the 190 houses the group has inbuilt each counties, practically 90% of them have been full rebuilds after the earlier construction was demolished.

A Statewide Downside With no Statewide Plan

Lawmakers have stated they acknowledge the size of the issue, however none have proposed different methods for tearing down harmful constructions.

Fayette County used state demolition cash because it was supposed, which was to tear down unsafe buildings that had develop into public security hazards to close by residents.

With assist from the state program, the county tore down 75 dilapidated constructions, officers stated, eradicating a few of the most harmful properties whereas persevering with to trace the progress of others by means of a countywide system.

County leaders hoped to develop their demolition efforts on their very own this 12 months, however these plans have been placed on maintain.

The county needed to take over operations of a neighborhood humane society after it confronted closure and might want to fundraise, stated John Breneman, president of the Fayette County Fee.

Former Sen. Chandler Swope, R-Mercer, stated that sort of finances stress is precisely why he pushed for state involvement in demolition funding.

Swope, who helped create the state fund for the demolition of dilapidated buildings in 2021, stated the concept grew from what he noticed in locations the place inhabitants loss left empty houses, which native governments had no strategy to tear down.

“They didn’t have any cash to tear down the dilapidated properties, so I made a decision that that must be a state obligation as a result of the state has extra flexibility and extra entry to funding,” he stated.

Swope stated he’d at all times seen the necessity as ongoing, at the same time as state budgets shift from 12 months to 12 months.

“I visualized it as a everlasting want. I didn’t assume you’d ever get to the purpose the place it was finished,” he stated. “I felt just like the success of this system would carry its personal precedence.”

However 4 years later, that funding is gone, and lawmakers haven’t discovered a substitute. Different states, in the meantime, have created long-term funding for demolition and redevelopment.

Ohio, for example, operates a statewide program that provides counties with annual demolition funding. Funds are appropriated from the state budget by lawmakers.

Staton stated West Virginia’s lack of a plan leaves communities caught.

“Deserted buildings are in each group, and each legislator has constituents who’re coping with this,” she stated. “They realize it’s only a matter of discovering the funding.”

And again on the West Facet, the Glaspeys are left watching boarded home windows and an overgrown yard throughout the road.

Matt stated, “Generally you assume, what’s the purpose of fixing up your personal place if every thing round you is collapsing?”

___

This story was initially printed by Mountain State Spotlight and distributed by means of a partnership with The Related Press.Tre Spencer is the reporter.

Copyright 2026 Related Press. All rights reserved. This materials will not be printed, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.