Cass County battles blight in housing market

CASS COUNTY, Mich. (WNDU) - Eyesore no more, as Cass County is helping residents demolish and repurpose unwanted and unsafe structures.

Blighted property negatively affects surrounding properties, lowering values and increasing difficulty to sell and crime rates.

These are just a few reasons Cass County is partnering with local municipalities to stabilize, demolish, or remediate buildings and vacant land.

Cass County’s new Blight Elimination Program is in its first phase, and ten property owners are already taking advantage of this initiative, with three additional phases already planned through 2024.

“The scale of vacant and abandoned properties across Cass County is significant, and it’s truly any township, city, or village can bear,” says Cass County Treasurer and Land Bank Authority Chair Hope Anderson. “Landbanks were actually formed in the State of Michigan to help our local units address these blighted properties in the County.”

In March of this year, the state land bank authority awarded the Cass County land bank authority about $160,000, promising at least $200,000 for the program.

“So we are not only taking advantage of the guaranteed funds, but we’re also applying competitively for additional projects in the future,” Anderson said.

“I think the whole county is very excited about this program,” Anderson said. “We’re excited to have this opportunity to address the blight problems in the county.”

One property owner taking advantage of the program is Ronald Terry, a Jones Village Resident who acquired the adjacent property from his former neighbors.

“I’d like to get the house torn down, and they came up with a new thing in Cass County, and the Cass County Treasurer, Hope Anderson, is helping us with it, and we’re really pleased,” says Ronald Terry, a resident of Jones, Mich.

Built in the 1890s, the house was a family home for nearly a century but has stood vacant for over 30 years.

“It’s beyond repair; water damage, no roof was on it, and it’s just rotting away,” Terry said.

If not for this program, the local municipalities would be responsible for the cost, which would inevitably fall on the property owner.

“It would probably take me some time and a lot of money, Terry said. “That’s all I can say because it’s a lot of work to be done there. Plus, they’re going to tear the basement up, put new sand in, topsoil, and grass seed, and I think it’s going to be better for the neighborhood, too. I mean, everybody’s starting to clean everything up around here.”

Suppose residents want to participate in this program after an approved assessment. In that case, the county will put a lien on their property to cover the cost of the demolition, but after seven years, the lien would expire.

One of the other properties set to be demolished is the Vandalia Gospel Lighthouse Church.

Anderson tells 16 News Now the church’s owner, Pastor Don Damron, wants to turn the property into senior housing.

She continued by saying that some owners plan to sell their properties after the demolitions, while others want to rebuild new homes. Owners like Terry are unsure what they will do with the property afterward but are purely excited to be rid of the decaying structures.

By law, Phase 1 must be completed by the end of the year.

Anderson says unless asbestos is found during an assessment, she hopes to complete demolition by the end of the summer.

Contact the Cass County Treasurer for more information about the Blight Elimination Program.

Their office is located at 120 N Broadway, Cassopolis, MI 49031.

You can contact Hope Anderson at (269) 445-4468.

Read the full press release here:

At the center of an idyllic residential neighborhood in Cassopolis, melted blue siding hangs from a charred wood frame that previously served as walls to a single-family home.
Yellow caution tape sways limply where a front door once hung, the only barrier keeping passersby from entering the treacherous scene.
Though once a setting for fond memories, the structure on Happy Drive in Cassopolis has become an invitation for danger for young people tempted to enter the building. Since the house was destroyed by a fire several months ago, neighbors have been forced to pass by the eyesore on their way to and from home and clean up ashes that have continued to fly from the yard.
Those days are numbered, however, as this property is one of eight uninhabitable parcels soon to be made useful again thanks to Cass County Land Bank Authority's new Blight Elimination Program.
“An important part of our mission is to partner with local jurisdictions to not only clean up blighted property but to have the property returned to productive use," said Cass County Treasurer Hope Anderson, who also serves as chair of the CCLBA.
In July 2022, HB 5783 appropriated $75 million to a statewide Blight Elimination Program, $21.5 million of which was designated to the state land bank authority for a competitive grant program to address blighted structures. In March 2023, the state land bank authority awarded the County land bank authority $159,226.40 for the purpose of restoring blighted properties.
The statewide program guaranteed a minimum $200,000 allocation to each rural county through the duration of the program, meaning Cass County is guaranteed additional dollars in future funding rounds. Funds can be used to:
Stabilize vacant residential, commercial, and industrial buildings to secure them and protect against further deterioration, with the goal of preserving them for future rehab to purposeful use
Demolish vacant and blighted residential, commercial, and industrial structures that cannot be rehabilitated
Provide matching or gap funding for environmental remediation on vacant land – often a critical barrier to redevelopment
Round one funding paid for demolitions in Howard, Newberg, Wayne, LaGrange and Pokagon townships, as well as the villages of Vandalia, Cassopolis and Marcellus.
The Cass County Blight Elimination Program is the latest of the County land bank's efforts to invest in the County economy.
"Blighted property has a negative effect on the surrounding properties; it lowers property values, makes it more difficult to sell properties and can pose an attractive nuisance to criminals," she said. "It may also discourage additional development in the area due to the fear of additional decline in the area."
Additional blighted properties will be addressed in three future rounds of the program. Anyone interested in partnering with the County Land Bank Authority should reach out to their local unit or contact Anderson at (269) 445-4468.
Ambrosia Neldon - Marketing & Communications Manager, Cass County

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