17-04-2025
Johnstown fighting against blighted properties to revitalize area
JOHNSTOWN, Pa. (WTAJ) — Officials are starting up a fight against dilapidated housing in the area.
Over 600 city lots face different problems, forcing the city to close down those properties. Broken glass, caved-in roofs and unmaintained grass lots litter each street and city block.
'There's rodents and there's problems, with who stays in, in the building,' Cambria County Commissioner Keith Rager said. 'So it poses a lot of problems.'
'They don't want anybody to get hurt. They don't want anything to happen with that,' Vision Together 2025 Executive Director Robert Forcey said.
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These problems are present in cities that lie in the Rust Belt of the nation, where steel towns that were prominent for the industry have moved away from. One neighboring city that was affected is Youngstown, Ohio.
Johnstown officials took a field trip to Youngstown to see the work they have done to combat dilapidated housing. Their observations of what those officials have done gave them a blueprint of what to do.
'They did one at a time, and they showed us the different places they went,' Rager said. 'Then they moved into where they're at now. They do an entire block remodeling where they'll do three or four houses here, do the sewer and do the entire block.'
'We've devoted $15,000 this year in to making sure that there are lots that are mowed all the way all over the city of Johnstown,' Forcey said. 'The second thing that we're doing is obviously with those 600 vacant lots in the city as we start building houses under the neighborhood partnership program that we've got, that's going to start to activate at least 21 vacant lots in the area at this time.'
As each house gets built, the sale will go back toward building a new house in a Fibonacci-esque style. The first home will look to be valued at around $100,000, the same amount as it costs to build the structure.
'After we sell it to the person, put it back into the program,' Forcey added. 'So in essence, the second year I have $200,000 and then $300,000 the third year, $400,000 the fourth year, $500,000 the fifth year, and $600,000 last year.'
Action has started to revitalize the area. At the beginning of the month, JWF Industries announced that they were awarding a free house to a veteran who is eligible according to their criteria.
READ MORE: JWF Industries offers free housing for Cambria, Somerset County veterans
CEO and Chairman Bill Polacek sees how creating one house in the city will create a domino effect for the rest of the area.
'Once you start something, you create an initiative,' Polacek said. 'You create hope and you create people believing in our community. People will start thinking differently.'
The idea to fight off the blight is a long and tough road ahead. But Forcey knows that for the area to come alive again, it needs its villages to support it.
'It's going to take every organization working together in the city, coming together and deciding to support this project,' Forcey said.
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