Indianapolis Fights Blight With Site

"The Department of Metropolitan Development's Indy Land Bank, established two years ago, acquires abandoned, tax-delinquent and other problem properties within Marion County and makes them available to nonprofit and for-profit developers.

Abandoned property purchased through a Marion County tax sale is typically sold "as is," often leaving the buyer to pay off tax and other liens. But a home purchased from the Indy Land Bank comes with a clean ownership title, free of such liens.

Fueled by job losses, bankruptcies and foreclosures, the abandoned-housing problem in Indianapolis is believed to be growing.

The most recent survey of vacant Indianapolis houses, by Ball State University students in 2003, showed the city had 7,913 vacant homes. Fifty-eight percent of them were in Center Township, just outside Downtown."