City Gets Grand To Demolish Homes

[RustTown]

I've been a surporter of this problem since it was announced. We get back more land for recreation or nature, and many of these homes in these particular areas are tiny, cheaply built homes. Hopefully, this leads to the filling in of the neighborhoods directly outside of these ones.

Being that this is a short, I'll post the whole thing as it wasn't an article in the newspaper, but a news brief:

City Gets Grand To Demolish Homes

The city of Lansing has received a $1.36 million federal grant to acquire and demolish up to 28 homes located in the city's most flood-prone areas along the Red Cedar and Grand rivers.

Under the Federal Emergency Management Agency program, homes will be purchased from owners on a voluntary basis; these homeowners may also be eligible for down payment assistance or rehabilitation expenses on another home.

"The goal is to move people out of harm's way," Mayor Virg Bernero said in a released statement.

The targeted properties are located along Magnolia, Hayford, Foster and Francis avenues in the Urbandale neighborhood on the city's east side and along Beulah and Fayette streets near the Red Cedar River about three-quarters of a mile upstream from the Grand.

FEMA will pay 75 percent of the total project costs, with the remaining 25 percent covered by the city and the Ingham County Land Bank, which has donated nine vacant parcels in the effort.