SOUTH JERSEY

Demolition plans for abandoned Camden homes in limbo

Kevin C. Shelly
Courier-Post
1476, 1478 and 1480 Louis St. in Camden’s Whitman Park section are ticketed for demolition, along with 58 other nearby properties.

Camden's first planned large-scale demolitions of abandoned buildings in decades was meant to be centered on the Whitman Park neighborhood.

The city expected to have 61 Whitman Park buildings torn down, plus another three — all highlighted in Courier-Post stories beginning last spring — on North 19th Street in Cramer Hill.

A second phase of demolition is meant to take down more than 500 buildings throughout the city, including additional buildings in Whitman Park and on North 19th Street.

But with only one bid for the first phase work made earlier this week — a bid that was withdrawn just hours after it was made — plans to finally begin dealing with the city's crime-ridden eyesores are back in limbo.

"We are still moving forward," Robert Corrales, the city's business administrator, asserted Thursday. "Phase 1 will go back out to bid."

Under the bid solicitation by the city, Louis Street was ground zero for demolitions within Whitman Park, a neighborhood pocked by blighted, trash-filled vacant homes, held captive by a rampant drug trade that uses the empty structures as safe havens.

The area "is one of the city's most challenging neighborhoods," Corrales said.

"It is a sewer," said Chase Street resident Dennis Hitchner as he walked down Louis and turned onto Chase — the street-corner a scene of a fatal shooting.

"It could look nice if you tore these down and put some new houses here," added Hitchner, who has lived on Chase for 40 years.

Louis Street alone holds 11 of the 61 Whitman Park buildings the city had targeted.

Even more buildings were targeted along Louis if you add properties on the corners that take the address of a side street, such as the Time & Place Lounge, a defunct taproom at the intersection of Chase and Louis streets.

The corner outside the bar, which closed in the 1990s, is the site of the homicide, the spray-painted RIP on the wall a stark visual reminder.

The initial demolition work was meant to be funded with a $970,000 federal Community Development Block Grant. That breaks down to $15,156 per building.

Recent bids for emergency demolitions in Camden have tended to run closer to $30,000 for each building, but emergency demolitions usually come with a higher price tag.

How the original bid proposal might be restructured given its failure to attract a single offer remains unclear.

Corrales said the city's construction officer chose the properties to be demolished. Whitman Park has the second-greatest concentration of abandoned buildings in the city and one of the worst drug problems.

Camden County Police Chief Scott Thomson had hoped to see demolitions begin as one part of reducing crime in the city.

"Most (abandoned buildings) are not safe for entry, which criminals see as an advantage to using them as safe havens. Nearly half of all our homicides this year have occurred inside a structure.

"For the more than two decades that I have worked the city streets, the Whitman Park neighborhood has been one of our most challenged sections as a perennial leader for homicides and violent crime," the chief continued.

"It has seen hardly any redevelopment or investments. The razing of 61 homes there would make it much more difficult for drug gangs to maintain their hold. It would be good for both the safety of the residents and the officers."

Since Mayor Dana L. Redd took office in 2010, the administration has demolished 464 properties, mostly emergency demolitions. Redd's own residence shares a roof with an abandoned home.

How not attracting any bids will affect the city's larger plans to tear down another 534 properties throughout the city remains unclear. Phase 2 bids have already been advertised, Corrales said.

Corrales earlier this year claimed several times the city would complete demolition of more than 500 buildings by the end of 2014. He indicated Thursday the project was slowed by the bid process.

"Given that this is such a large-scale demolition initiative, one that has not been attempted before in the state, we carefully crafted specs that would ensure the demolition work performed would meet our expectation and be done within a specific time frame and budget," he said.

Along Louis Street, 11 homes slated for demolition stretch along two blocks, from 1467 to 1570.

They serve as a microcosm of how Camden came to have 1,629 abandoned residential properties, according to city inspectors.

(A mapping project by community groups earlier this year puts the total number of abandoned buildings — including commercial ones — at more than 3,400, which means 14.9 percent of Camden's 22,906 buildings are abandoned.)

Some of the Louis Street homes were once owner-occupied. Some were owned by people with nearby suburban addresses. There are a few out-of-staters. A handful were owned by outside financial service firms or agencies, such as the Veterans Administration, which makes home loans.

Mark Harmon, a resident of the city all of his 57 years, shook his head when asked about the condition of Whitman Park.

"They need to do something about this. We need new houses."

Angel Perez wants to move his family out of Whitman Park due to crime in the neighborhood.

"Drugs are getting to be everywhere," said Perez, who has three kids.

He said the area could be nice because it is close to the eponymous park, where the nationally-known Sophisticated Sisters drill team practices.

But instead, "the city ain't done nothing" to improve conditions in the neighborhood where he has lived for three years.

Perez and another resident said the park, plus the abundance of nearby abandoned homes, have created a haven for destructive raccoons, which work their way from house to house via shared roofs.

"They are like neighborhood cats now. They do everything but meow," said one resident.

Elaine Hawkins, who lives on Chase near two homes on the demolition list, blamed the city's neglect of maintenance for the dire condition of many decaying homes.

"The city never done nothing. The back end of 1225 and 1227 Chase are open. The city never done nothing to close them in. I hear bricks falling when it rains.

"And here in this empty lot, where a home was demolished, the city never cleans up. I pay someone to pick up and it isn't my property."

She even put up a gate on the empty lot, but it was torn down.

"I can't wait to move," said Hawkins, who lives with her three children and a grandchild.

"It is a good thing that these are finally on the list, but they need to hurry and tear them down," she said.

For now, the wait continues.

Reach Kevin Shelly at kshelly@courierpostonline.com or (856) 449-8684. Follow him on Twitter at @kcshlly