This pair of houses--210 and 212 State Street--was brought to my attention several weeks ago by a reader. According to the reader, who lives not far from these two houses, they have been abandoned and decaying for years.
The assessment roll indicates that the City of Hudson took ownership of the buildings in 2006 from an entity called Good Samaritan Housing. It seems reasonable to think they were seized in a tax foreclosure proceeding. In the two decades since then, there have been a few tax foreclosure auctions, but these houses have never been included in such an auction.
An inquiry to city treasurer Heather Campbell yielded the following information. Campbell said the property's appearance on the original foreclosure list inspired her to do some sleuthing. It turns out the houses are not actually owned by the City. According to Campbell, the property was conveyed to Hudson Property Holding Corp in 2010. It was under Hudson Property Holding's name until 2024, when the assessor changed the owner on the assessment roll to the City of Hudson because the property transfer in 2010 was either not filed or not correctly filed. The last deed information the county has is from 2006, when the property was transferred to the City in foreclosure proceedings.
The current ownership of the property is unclear, but whoever the owner is, the two houses should not have been permitted to sit vacant and decaying for the past twenty years. In his inaugural speech on Saturday, Mayor Joe Ferris spoke of pursuing all means to increase the available housing in Hudson. It is hoped that providing some incentives to salvage vacant buildings such as 210-212 State Street and make them habitable dwellings again might be part of the plan. It has been demonstrated that it can be done. Here is one example.
 |
| 66 North Third Street in 2012 |
 |
| 66 North Third Street in 2018 |
The situation at 210-12 State is inexcusable but not at all surprising. The city needs to get its act together. Shouldn't Code Enforcement have made a PROACTIVE effort to look inside those houses by now to see what's going on and to find out who owns them so they can send someone a code violation notice or twenty before they burn to the ground or just fall over from rot?
ReplyDeleteThe larger issue with abandoned rotting houses is that Code Enforcement does little to nothing to force the owners to fix them up. The fees associated with vacant buildings are never applied -- it's a joke! There is a vacant buildings registry but it serves little to no purpose. Vacant rotting buildings are a safety issue, a quality of life issue, a revenue issue, all sorts of issues that seem to beyond the understanding of City Hall. Just have a look at Galvan's two houses at 618 State. City Hall and code enforcement don't care how many more decades they're vacant and rotting or if they both eventually need to be demolished. Does Lola Roberts care? Of course she doesn't! Does Jason Foster care? We shall see, though I doubt it.
210 - 12 State is in the 2nd ward, correct? What the hell have Mohammed Rony and Dewan Sarowar done about those houses in the past 4 years? They don't give a crap! Those disgusting houses don't bother them one bit if they're even aware of them (not likely). And that's the other issue: the uselessness of too many council members who have grown too accustom to the dysfunction coming out of City Hall.
Dear Sir -
DeleteWhat do you love about Hudson?
We love the people (even the socialists, but certainly not every single socialist), the walkability, and the architecture.
What keeps you here and sparks joy?
The root problem here is that Hudson was allowed to deteriorate for so many decades that people become accustomed to this kind of thing and never consider that maybe we ought to raise the bar. This is a perfect example of the kind of low community self-esteem that leads to the permitting of a gravel dump and truck route next to a city park. In some respects, Hudson still hasn't evolved past 1971. ~ PJ
ReplyDeleteI live a few doors away from these houses and have been watching them deteriorate for years. People dump garbage there, and in the summer weeds grow three feet high.
ReplyDeleteBack in August, I contacted my aldermen and DPW asking if someone could pick up garbage dumped there. I was told to call code enforcement because, as I was informed, "It is not DPWs task to keep private properties clean, and sidewalks are considered the purview of the owner of the property." That response feels ironic given that the City is listed as the owner. I ended up picking up some of the garbage myself.
In December, after the first snowfall, I emailed code enforcement because the sidewalks hadn’t been shoveled and were frozen over with weeds and trash. I received no response.
Conditions like this should not persist longer in some neighborhoods than others. Everyone living in Hudson deserves the same enforcement, care, and attention regardless of the part of town they live in.