A bit click-baity. But it got me thinking about the issue of vacant houses and solutions.
Baltimore has about 30,000 vacant properties, about of half which are vacant homes. There will still be stretches of blocks and blocks where maybe one house is occupied, if any. It's a sight that's heartbreaking, ugly, sad, and dangerous all in one. They're vacant houses, so why not simply demolish them? This has proven inordinately difficult. This episode of Planet Money discussed the yearslong process to demolish a 17-house city block, only one of which was occupied and thus needed a resident to relocate (an important hurdle since the city has to relocate based on a set of criteria, not just find another place that's charging similar rent). It cost $700,000. That's something like $600 million to demolish the vacant houses in Baltimore. Ain't gonna happen. Baltimore city schools are firing something like a thousand teachers to close a $130 million budget gap.
So what about taxing the owners? Baltimore already has insanely high property taxes, but what about a penalty to the owner if the house is vacant for a prolonged amount of time?
Why not just relax laws against squatting and eminent domain? Those vacant houses will be occupied before you know it.