The City of St. Louis is working to get 500 vacant properties into the hands of more attentive owners, a process that involves new ordinances taking effect as well as a half-dozen city and county agencies getting over their famous fragmentation and working together.
Alderwoman Anne Schweitzer, who has long made fighting vacancy in her South City ward a top priority, says that the city moving these properties toward a special tax sale is “kind of a pilot—it’s an example of, ‘OK, this can be scaled up.’” In other words, the city has way more than 500 vacant properties with derelict owners. But it’s good to start somewhere.
“These properties are the worst of the worst–repeat code violators, long-standing neglect,” says Peter Hoffman with Legal Services of Eastern Missouri. He stresses that none of these properties has anyone residing inside them…