Processes to consider when thinking through how to transition abandoned homes from absentee owners to developers could include: a) land banking, b) spot blight eminent domain, and c) receivership. Tools. Why focus on this problem? Why cultivate ideas? Why develop solutions?

Abandoned homes become financial drains on a city’s resources. For example, the cost to demolish an abandoned home?Demolition costs could reach up to $20,000. Per home.

And there are social costs as well…

Neighborhoods with abandoned homes become breeding grounds for crime. For drug use. For violence. Social costs.

But social costs are not always correlated to dollars and cents. Furthermore, social costs are often viewed as someone else’s problem.

But are social costs easy to understand? Are social costs someone else’s problem?

Social costs attributed to abandoned homes correlate to financial costs. Financial costs incurred by the city. Financial costs incurred by the city’s stakeholders. Financial costs incurred by the city’s taxpayers.

Social costs attributed to abandoned homes affect city residents who may – at first – believe abandoned homes would not be a problem affecting them.

For example…

A New Yorker living in Tribeca or on the Upper East Side is part of New York City. As such, they pay New York City taxes. So, while there may be few abandoned homes in their neighborhood, Tribeca and the Upper East Side are still coupled to the poorest neighborhoods in New York City. To the Morrisania and the Crotona neighborhoods in the Bronx.

In Morrisania and Crotona, nearly 4-out-of-10 live below the poverty line.

Let’s say socioeconomic challenges in Morrisania or Crotona lead to a foreclosure in either neighborhood. That foreclosure, then becoming an abandoned home.

Increased police patrolling is one byproduct of abandoned homes. Enacted to prevent neighborhoods from spiraling into crime magnets.

Increased New York City police patrolling in the Bronx is a financial cost. Which addresses the social cost. And that is a New York City cost. A cost which is bourne by…Morrisania residents. A cost which is bourne by…residents on the Upper East Side. A cost which is bourne by…residents in Tribeca. A cost which is bourne by…Crotona residents.