Abandoned Harris County properties are getting rehabbed thanks to federal stimulus funds

Harris County is scheduled to clean up around two dozen abandoned "nuisance properties" this month, part of an effort aimed at tackling about 1,100 neighborhood eyesores and public health hazards during the next four years. Commissioners Court on Tuesday approved another batch to add to the list, which now includes 76 lots in areas such as Spring, Katy and Channelview. The properties typically are selected in response to complaints about unsafe conditions reported by residents. The majority of properties set to be cleaned up under the expanded neighborhood nuisance program are "cold cases" in which the owners have been unresponsive for years, according to the county. To reach the owners, the county sent investigators to the properties, mailed numerous official notices and published advertisements.

Using American Rescue Plan dollars to fund the program, the county will complete the work without placing a lien on the property or charging the owner for the cost of abatement. "The people or companies who own them sometimes don't even know they own the property or they really have no plans for it," said Scott Jeansonne, Director of the Environmental Public Health Division at Harris County Public Health. County officials hope the effort will make the abandoned properties more attractive to buyers. "So, hopefully, if we go out there and we clean these up, somebody will come along and actually buy that property and do something with it — flip that house, rebuild a new house, commercially improve that vacant lot that's been covered in trash for five years and turn it into some sort of business," Jeansonne said. Three properties have been completed since the initiative was announced in July, including a partially burned home, a house destroyed in Hurricane Harvey with an abandoned swimming pool and a large vacant lot. The county was able to remove remnants of the structures, tear out the pool and remove trash from areas that had become dumping grounds.