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Hogsett promises neighborhood development

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Democratic candidate for mayor Joe Hogsett stood in front of a burned out, abandoned home on Udell Street Tuesday where he unveiled the first elements of a neighborhood development plan.

John, a next door neighbor who declined to go on camera, said the house has been abandoned for 18 months and he’s worried that a second fire could damage the home he’s lived in for 51 years.

Hogsett promised a full inventory of abandoned and foreclosed buildings.

“Then we will need a unified strategy across government agencies,” he said, “to insure that if absentee owners or landlords won’t maintain properties, those houses will be rehabilitated or torn down.”

Hogsett is not yet ready to reveal where the money will come from to accomplish that.

He did give the Ballard administration credit for attacking the problem and said he wants to build on what it’s accomplished.