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11 images Created 7 Mar 2018

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  • The Southside of Statesville has a housing problem. The area, covering approximately three square miles, is home to more than 50 abandoned homes. These homes range from long-term vacant homes that are board up to structures that are very unsafe to be around. These abandoned homes help compound the problems of a neighborhood that already has a crime and poverty rate. Ward Five city councilman John Staford describes the houses as a "blight" on the community, and ward three councilwoman Doris Allison said, the houses "just sit and rot away." Pictured, a school bus drives past an abandoned house at the 200 block of Fayetteville Avenue to drop off kids two houses down on Jan. 24. There are several bus stops in close vicinity of this abandoned house.
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  • Trash, including beer cans and bottles, are piled up inside of an abandoned home on Jan. 16 at the 200 block of Fayetteville Avenue. Multiple houses with families surround this abandoned house, and several school buses drop off kids within a block or less of this house.
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  • Liz Ramos lives on a block that has five abandoned, and two occupied houses. Ramos lives in her rental home with three small children. I often see people who I belive are homeless going in the abandoned houses on my block, Ramos said.  "I say stay inside and have dogs or a gun," Ramos said. "This is way too much for me." Pictured, Zamia Gholston (left), 4, and Jaylany Almonte, 9, play on their trampoline in front of Liz Ramos' house at the 900 block of Fourth Street on Jan. 29.
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  • A view of an abandoned house that had its front porch collapse on Jan. 9 at the 900 block of Fourth Street.
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  • Jamaria Thomas, 8, rides her tricycle by a boarded up vacant home at the 1200 block of Fifth Street. Jamaria lives across the street from the boarded up vacant home.
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  • A view inside of an abandoned house at the 1200 block of Goldsboro Avenue on Feb. 26. Many abandoned houses on the Southside are not secured at all.
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  • Angela Bowman walks past a destroyed house on Newbern Avenue near the intersection with Fifth Street on Jan. 10. These abandoned and destroyed buildings can't lead to anything good, Bowman said.
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  • The City of Statesville is slowly trying to combat the problem, however, the code enforcement department is understaffed and the condemnation process takes the better part of a year. Once the house is condemned the city usually has to foot the bill for the home to be destroyed due to absentee property owners. As time goes on more houses become abandoned. Pictured, City of Statesville inspector Eric Fox surveys the damage to a vacant home that had it's door left open on Jan. 31 at the 900 block of Marshall Street.
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  • Miguel Christian's family owns five properties on the Southside, and have had several of the properties destroyed by the city. The family struggles to keep the properties up to code, Christian said. The old structures need a lot of work, and when they do make repairs the materials are quickly stolen at night, he said. Pictured, Rey Reynoso (right) and his brother Miguel Christian move boards that need to be cut so they can board up a door at their vacant dilapidated house on the corner of Wilson Lee Boulevard and Newbern Avenue on Jan. 30.
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  • An excavator removes the rubble of a home that was demolished by the city on Feb. 6 at the 600 block of Durham Avenue.
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  • The empty lots that remain after the city demolishes house helps the neighborhood but at the same time it makes the low income housing options for the community even smaller. City of Statesville inspector Eric Fox advocates that something needs to be done to save the houses that can be saved. I would like to see more homes being lived in by the families that own them, Fox, said. According to City-Data.com, 66 percent of the homes in the neighborhood are rentals. "At what point are you going to stop tearing down the low income housing [on the Southside], Fox said. "Do you see any new construction going up?" Pictured, shoes hang from a wire above a staircase the leads up to an empty lot that used to have a house on Jan. 30 at the 1000 block of Fourth Street. The house that used to be on the lot was demolished by the city several years ago.
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Ryan Revock Visual Journalist

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