What happens to abandoned homes in Evansville?

EVANSVILLE, Ind. (WFIE) - After two bodies were found in abandoned Evansville homes less than a mile away from one another, 14 News went back to talk with more neighbors.

[READ: EPD investigating after two bodies found in abandoned homes]

According to people in the area, the home on Harriett Street that law enforcement say they found a body inside of had been abandoned for some time, and it’s not unique.

They say there are other homes just like it not only in the neighborhood, but across the city, including the separate home less than a mile away on Read Street that also had a body inside of it.

“It’s even kind of scary to like want to walk past them and stuff, cause you never know like, who’s in there, what’s in there, anything,” says one neighbor.

So, what is there to do?

If you’re unsure of that answer, you’re not alone.

When we asked that same neighbor if she knew what happens to abandoned homes in the city, she answered, “no, I do not know how that works. I wish I would have cause maybe I could invest in something like that.”

If you’re picturing a situation where the city can go in and just tear a building down that’s an eyesore, it’s not quite that simple.

Enter somebody very well-versed on the subject, Kelly Coures, the director of the Department of Metropolitan Development.

“If there’s been a property that has been through the tax sale process and hasn’t sold at tax sale, we identify the ones that we think that we can take off that list and demolish. We give that list to the county, and then the next summer, we’ll get the title to those after they do the quiet title on all those properties,” explains Coures.

To understand what that means in layman’s terms, it’s easier to break it down step by step.

Take the Harriett House for instance.

According to the Vanderburgh County Assessor’s Website, the last tax payment on the home was in 2021, and if you track the owner’s name, it appears she passed away in 2018.

With nobody paying taxes on it for that long, it’s eligible to be on the 2023 Tax Sale.

Enter, the land bank: the city’s solution to taking abandoned and blighted homes off the map.

If nobody picks up a property like the one on Harriett Street during the tax sale, they might swoop in.

“We have a big map in the land bank office that the land bank manager surgically finds ones that when the tax sale comes out, she’ll identify ones that are next to lots that we already own, or that one of our partners owns, and those are the ones that we go and try and get from the county,” says Coures.

After a property is acquired by the land bank, they’ll choose to demolish the structure and do something new with the lot or, if applicable, rehab it into something livable once again.

The list of properties on the 2023 tax sale has yet to be released, but Coures confirmed the land bank is looking to grab 16 total properties from the previous tax sale this fall.

That’s not the only thing that can happen to abandoned or blighted homes in the area though.

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