by Jody Spear and Kelly Meyer –
MASON CITY – The Mason City Police were inspecting the flood houses in the area of 6th Street NE and North VanBuren, Thursday morning.
A report from one of remaining residents in the area informed the officers that the doors were open on several of the abandoned homes.
“As far as anything being stolen, anything of value has been taken long ago,” said one of the officers. “We don’t know which ones are up for demolition or which ones have been bought and will be moved, so we have them on our regular routes to keep on eye on them. These houses have been here quite awhile, we don’t really know what the future holds for this area.”
Another officer said, “We’ve asked the people that are still here to keep on eye on any suspicious activity and they do a good job. We get called maybe two or three times a week to check out something.”
Bringing up the idea of maybe some people were cold and just needed a place to sleep got the response of, “Yep, that could be.”
City officials have reported that homeless people and children have been entering the homes for years; that has been an on-going concern.
The city is still moving to have many of the 2008 flood homes removed, but federal red tape has slowed the process.
I am confused about this address. This must be 6th NW and not 6th NE as stated in this article.
If the owners have been paid for these homes and are no longer there, I would love to see them taken by homeless people, let them turn the power back on and live in these homes. The deal would be, no insurance on these homes but they could live in them until they find something else. This could put people in poverty a had up instead of a hand out. (They are not houses that are lived in now.)If the home owners have been paid for the property, the deal could be Homesteaded to the new resident and they could pay property tax. (That would help the city.) No house payments but taxes coming in.
In these times, it is time to think outside of the box. Let people live in these homes that are not ideal for most people but are survival for some.
Just thought I would throw that our for an idea.
People need a place to get out of the elements. That is only going to get worse as we become more of a welfare country.
tornquist says he is a problem solver and not a problem maker let him figure out what to do.
The only problems he wants to solve is when the outcome is to his advantage.