Gary will soon receive its second round of funding to address blighted areas throughout the city.

Recently, it was announced that the city would get $4.4 million from the Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority’s Blight Elimination Program’s $5.5 million allocation. Other cities receiving funding are East Chicago ($914,000) and Hammond ($268,000).
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In 2014, Gary received $6.6 million to demolish abandoned properties in blighted areas. The city is close to completing the first phase of the project and requested the state apply the leftover money to the second phase of the project.

A new round of funding to address blighted buildings is coming to three Northwest Indiana cities.The Indiana Housing and Community Development Authority announced the more than $5.5 million is being allocated to Gary, East Chicago and Hammond from the state's Blight Elimination Program. Through the new allocation, $4.4 million will go to Gary; $914,000 to East Chicago; and $268,000 to Hammond.

GARY — City officials are hoping to expand on a program that allowed several hundred abandoned homes in the city to be demolished over the past two years.
The city’s redevelopment commission could end up knocking down nearly 700 vacant houses with the money received through the state’s Hardest Hit Fund Blight Elimination Program, according to Joseph Van Dyk, executive director of the city’s redevelopment and planning department.
That fund was primarily designed to help people facing mortgage foreclosures because of the downturn in the housing market. However, Indiana and some other states were authorized to use some of the money received earlier through the program to fight blight. The state decided to use about a third — or $75 million — of the $221 million for blight elimination.

GARY — City officials hope its demolition program, outperforming those in other Indiana communities, will help it snag a larger share of federal funds as Gary continues to knock down empty structures.
By the end of 2015, the state had paid claims for the removal of 270 structures in Indiana through the Hardest Hit Fund Blight Elimination Program. More than a third of those were in Gary. Because of a lag time between demolitions and when claims are paid, the actual number of structures removed is greater.