City of Charleston officials including law enforcement officers, firefighters, the City Attorney's office, and the building commissioner's office, have started to take advantage of a new state law that transforms the way that municipalities can demolish abandoned properties.
The law, which took effect in July, allows code enforcement agencies to obtain search warrants from a municipal judge to determine the status of a structure. If granted, the agency can inspect the property to see if it truly is dilapidated, Charleston City Attorney Paul Ellis said.
Officials visited two houses in the 400 block of Randolph Street Friday afternoon, inspecting properties that multiple neighbors had complained about, Ellis said.
City officials believe people are squatting in some of the houses. At one of the houses officials examined, police officers found evidence that people were living in the building's bottom floor.
They plan to start visiting four to six houses each week that they believe may believe fall under those standards. Many of those houses are burn-outs or partial burn-outs.
Ellis said they'll document each building, taking pictures and video, with full reports from the fire department and the building department on the condition of each structure.
"It's a huge imposition to these neighborhoods, and it's certainly an attractive nuisance," Ellis said.
It would take up to two years, sometimes longer, under the state's former law for the city to get approval to demolish buildings that are classified as public nuisances. Now, Ellis said, it can take as little as two months.
The city is creating checklists and affidavit forms. Ellis said they plan on sharing how they're conducting the process with other municipalities throughout the state.
Ellis said they plan on starting the process on the West Side because of concerns from neighbors. Ellis said the city has a list of about 25 houses they plan to begin examining over the next few weeks.
Ellis said the process will take up to four months. The buildings that are deemed a public nuisance under the law will be eligible for demolition.
But this does not mean every one of the vacant structures immediately will be demolished, Ellis said. The city's building demolition program is funded almost entirely through the Community Development Block Grant program. During the last fiscal year the building commission received $200,000 of CDBG funds, down more than 30 percent from the previous year's funding.
But Community Development Block Grant funding is targeted to be part of $6 billion worth of cuts to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development in a budget proposal released in March from the Trump administration.
Now the city is playing a waiting game, having no idea how much they will receive from HUD this year.
"It's going to end up being a matter of resources," Ellis said
Sgt. Paul Perdue, who leads the Charleston Police Department's public service unit, said the houses are known for "breeding criminal activity." He estimates that the police department spends somewhere between 30 and 50 percent of their shifts investigating crimes at abandoned structures, depending on the week.
A man was arrested for possession of methamphetamine and marijuana while standing outside of one of the houses Friday, Perdue said.
Reach Ali Schmitz at ali.schmitz@wvgazettemail.com, 304-348-4843 or follow @SchmitzMedia on Twitter.