Residents doing their part to keep lots clean
SAGINAW -- Vacant properties in Saginaw are on the rise.
Of the 86,844 properties in Saginaw County, 7,833 remain vacant according the 2010 census.
That number is up 5.9 percent from 2000.
In 2000 there were 1,339 fewer homes but still 2,758 fewer vacant homes than last year.
Odail Thorns is the Director of Development for the City of Saginaw, where most of the properties are, and says the the population decline, caused by the housing crash and the lack of jobs, is the reason. “When you look at the population loss from 60 thousand down to 51 thousand it creates home vacancies”, says Thorns. “It has to do with job opportunities, we’re not just creating jobs fast enough.”
Thomas does give credit to the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for benefiting around 200 local contractors, creating construction jobs in Saginaw. But he said the other jobs are being created outside the city. He mentioned recent job additions at Hemclock Superconductor and at Dow as being helpful, but those are largely not people who are living in Saginaw proper. “The jobs are being created in other locations around Saginaw”, he said, “but in the city frankly there has not been what I would call a significant job growth.”
Thorns mentioned that part of the $20 million in stimulus money was dedicated to improving blight and only half of the money is spent, but many neighborhoods have not seen help. Billy Smith and his neighbors got together to clean up a lot, about nine people with lawnmowers. “Do you think the city should be doing this? We asked. “Yeah that’s their job but they are a little slow so we took it upon ourselves to make it look presentable.” Lawnmowers and weedwackers belonging to Bill and his neighbors turned a lot with grass and weeds more than 6 feet high into something that isn’t an eyesore.
“We got it done,” says Bill, “It looks a little better, now we’re going to keep it like that”.
Not all areas of Saginaw County saw an increase in vacancies. Tittabawasee Township actually saw a decline.
