Baltimore looks at mortgage fraud windfall to tear down abandoned homes

BALTIMORE - Nice brick front row home, breezy and full of sunlight.

Comes with interior garden.

Even a real estate ad couldn't make this house look any better.

Or the house next to it, or the house next to the house that's next to the house with the tree in it.

There are more than 30 thousand abandoned properties in the city.

Some are just boarded up and yes some have a tree inside.

An abandoned house can cause a lot of problems for people who live next to one.

A water main break three years ago on Kirk Avenue allowed water to flood this abandoned house.

The city couldn't pump it out for fear of collapse.

In turn the water has seeped into the basement of Kim Collins and her occupied house.

And it's has progressively gotten worse.

"The roof has totally collapsed so when it rains that means it's not it's going straight into the basement and the floor and my house over here the water bubbles up in my basement and my basement is constantly wet. ” Collins says.

In Detroit the city received $10 million from the mortgage fraud settlement to tear down about 5,000 vacant homes around schools.

They’re hoping to create green space and safer areas for children to go to school.

Baltimore City has the Vacant to Value Initiative for rehabbing communities and tearing down houses.

Mayor Rawlings-Blake says the city has a plan in place for dealing with vacants and the mortgage fraud settlement could help do more.

“We have the incentives we have the targeted enforcement as well as the demolition I'm pleased about the amount of demolition that we've been able to do the amount of partnership we've been able to do because of new development and I'm looking forward to using the settlement money to further those efforts. ” Mayor Rawlings-Blake says.