Eliminating blight has been a top priority for our administration as one way to make our community safer. That’s why the Commission approved $5 million in American Rescue Plan (ARP) funds to help continue to remove dilapidated and dangerous structures from our neighborhoods.

The money will be placed in a Blight Elimination Revolving Loan Fund and used for demolishing blighted and dangerous structures. Funds can also be used to acquire the property and transfer it to the Macon-Bibb County Land Bank Authority for sale to a developer to build quality affordable housing.

“This money is going to allow us to take down more blighted houses in neighborhoods and clear more lots,” says Mayor Lester Miller. “No one should have to look at those eyesores, and most importantly, live in fear because of the danger these blighted properties bring.”

In April this year, Mayor Miller announced the #BlightFight, a targeted approach to eliminate blight quickly in our neighborhoods. Mayor Miller announced a goal of tearing down 30 houses in 30 days, and that goal was met nine days early. In that first round, a total of 44 blighted houses were torn down, and there are 40 included in this second round. Since then, our crews have taken down and cleared  50  blighted properties.  Once all of the houses are demolished in the first and second round, we will have removed almost 90 blighted houses from our neighborhoods since the start of our initiative.

Although the second round is just beginning, Code Enforcement is already moving forward with the third round in this blight fight. They are preparing to send the owners letters to let them know of the pending demolition and cost to them if they don’t fix them up.