ELWOOD — In 2015, a big yellow bulldozer was sent to 800 N. 16th St. to knock over a house that clearly had seen better days.
Grass was planted, and in the ensuing years, the lot in the heart of Elwood remained a vacant plot of greenspace.
But over the past couple of months, a building has been erected, returning life to the lot like a phoenix rising from the flames.
“In the back of our minds, we always wanted to build new homes on those lots, but the real estate market wasn’t good,” said Bill Savage, Elwood’s planning director and special projects adviser.
The home is one of 52 that was demolished by the city through its Blight Elimination Project, in partnership with Elwood Redevelopment Commission and Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority.

​ANDERSON — The city of Elwood is looking to improve the appearance of Indiana 37 coming into the city.
The Madison County Planning Commission on Tuesday approved an agreement with Elwood that will allow the city to clean up six properties located in the county.
“This is a unique opportunity to clean up some properties,” Elwood Mayor Todd Jones said. “The properties are not currently in the city limits.”

I​t would compete for federal money available from the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority's Blight Elimination Program (BEP).

ANDERSON — Through an extension of the Blight Elimination Program, the city of Anderson will be able to demolish at least 32 properties in 2020.
The Anderson Community Development Corp., or ACDC, on Thursday approved an amended agreement with the state to continue as the program’s community partner with the state of Indiana.

A pair of proposed apartment projects will not be happening this year in Washington. Proposals by a couple of firms that had sought city support as they tried to get special housing credits to finance the project were turned down by the state.
“We had two developers from Ohio that came to the city this summer and they were applying to the Indiana Housing and Community Development Agency for rental housing incentives,” said Washington Mayor Joe Wellman. “It was a competitive application to the state to get the tax credits to build those. It was a very competitive process and neither one of them scored high enough to be approved.”

In 1917, the song “(Back Home Again in) Indiana” was first released.
In 1971, The Jackson 5 sang “Goin’ Back to Indiana.”
But since about 2017, Indiana’s song could be Woody Guthrie’s “I Ain’t Got No Home.”
Anyone who’s tried to buy a house in Cass County knows that properties don’t stay on the market long.
“If a house is priced right, it’ll have an offer on it within a few days,” said Steve Schwering of Schwering Realty LLC in Logansport.
In Cass County, there are 129 houses on the market with 25 of those pending sale completion — an offer has been accepted and paperwork is being done.

ANDERSON – Although the federally funded blight elimination program is scheduled to conclude at the end of the year, the city of Anderson will receive funding in 2020.
Local resident Joe Carney asked during Thursday’s meeting of the City Council if the city was adding $100,000 to the budget for blight elimination.

EVANSVILLE, Ind. — City participation in a federally-funded program to eliminate the problem of vacant and abandoned homes will end in December. But the Evansville Land Bank, another effort in the battle against urban blight, will continue.
Beginning in 2014, the city's Blight Elimination Program received $2.3 million in federal money distributed by the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority. The money originated from the federal Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) during the 2008 financial crisis.

Last year, a housing master plan funded by the Logansport City Council revealed some confounding numbers — the city has a need for a minimum of 250 new housing units and as many as 400 in the coming years.
Housing was the number one issue listed in the city’s “Nineteen for 19” agenda at the State of the City/County luncheon earlier this year, and according to Logansport Mayor Dave Kitchell, it’s also a top priority for other Indiana cities because of its impact on economic development.
The city has been making significant progress toward achieving its housing goals.