Zombie houses, which are houses that are vacant and abandoned that are not maintained during a prolonged foreclosure proceeding, can cause decreases in assessed value for neighboring properties. This isn’t only bad for an owner of a house next to a zombie property, but it is also bad for the city. If houses neighboring a zombie decrease in assessed value, this means city officials collect less in real property taxes.

“I’ll point back to a study done about 10 years ago now that showed that one vacant and abandoned house lowers the value of all other houses on the street by $10,000 to $25,000,” said Vince DeJoy, city development director. “I think this still holds true today. It does depend on what street the zombie house is on and what the other houses on the street are like.”

Along with decreasing property values, zombie houses also lead to serious crimes like arson. On March 24 and 25, 2017, city officials witnessed how dangerous vacant houses can be when an arsonist went to work by intentionally setting fire to four houses.

“All were vacant properties, not all of them were zombies. Three out of the four were zombies,” DeJoy said. “One of the properties the (Chautauqua County Land Bank Corp) and the city were working together to market for sale, but it was removed by the arson.”

P-J by Dennis Phillips

In October 2016, city officials were approved for the Zombie Remediation and Prevention Initiative program and received $149,970 in funding. The program money has gone toward addressing housing vacancy and blight by bolstering housing code enforcement, tracking and monitoring vacant properties and for legal enforcement capacity to ensure banks and mortgage companies comply with local and state law. The grant also require communities to develop innovative programs and policies and connect at-risk homeowners to services so they can avoid foreclosure and stay in their homes.

City officials have been able to hire a part-time attorney, currently Benjamin Haskins, to represent the city in housing court. Haskins also assist homeowners going through the foreclosure process with information. DeJoy said Haskins also helps in dealing with banks and mortgage companies on the need to maintain vacant foreclosed houses.

“We’ve been able to contact banks and tell them there are code violations and safety violations that need to be addressed,” he said. “We can also subpoena banks and fine them and pursue them vigorously. We used the funding to hire a part-time attorney who contacts banks to get them to maintain the zombie house so that it is safe and secured.

“We have been somewhat successful. It is a house-by-house process. We’ve had some success in some cases, but it can be overwhelming because there are so many houses going through the foreclosure process.”

DeJoy said in recent years the city has seen a decline in the number of zombie houses compared to more than five years ago.

“There has been a decline in the last five years, but there are still a good number of houses classified as a zombie.”

Part of the problem in lowering the number of zombie properties is knowing a house is vacant. DeJoy said one of the main sources in finding zombie houses is by citizens reporting that they believe a neighboring property is a zombie house.

“We then follow up and find out what is happening,” DeJoy said. “Sometimes it is the result of a death and they have no relatives and the house is foreclosed on. That is one of the most difficult cases to resolve and try to remove as a zombie because there are issues with finding any next of kin or relatives that might be included in a will who may step forward to take responsibility of the property. It is difficult in those cases because nobody really knows who to contact to determine who has control of the house so that it is secured.”