The Jamestown City Council during its Feb. 25, 2019 voting session.
JAMESTOWN – The Jamestown City Council this week approved a resolution for the city to apply for up to $200,000 in state money to help address zombie properties.
The funding would come from the state Zombie Remediation and Prevention Initiative program. City development director Vince DeJoy said the money would be used to continue to address properties in the city deemed as zombie properties – those that have been abandoned due to foreclosure and as a result failing into a state of disrepair.
“What we are going to be doing is extending our legal capacity to hire an attorney who will work on a contract basis, exclusively for the department of development to do research on zombie properties, to prosecute cases of zombie properties when lenders haven’t lived up to their legal obligations to maintain houses, and also to provide legal information for those that are in the foreclosure process,” DeJoy said.
If approved, it would be the second time the city received money to address zombie properties. It also received $150,000 in 2016 as part of a two-year funding program.
DeJoy adds the city has until March 8 to apply for the grant and his office is currently compiling data to make a case for getting as much funding as possible from the program.
To report a zombie property, visit the zombie property report page at the city website or call the department of development office at 483-7542.
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