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City Cleans Up Abandoned Foreclosed Properties

Intervention Team Hard At Work In Dorchester

POSTED: 5:15 pm EDT May 13, 2008
UPDATED: 5:36 pm EDT May 13, 2008

The National Association of Realtors said Tuesday that median home prices fell in two-thirds of the cities they surveyed.

NewsCenter 5's Amalia Barreda reported that home prices nationally are down almost $197,000. In Dorchester, residents are cleaning up in the wake of foreclosure.

VIDEO: Foreclosure Clean Up

For some neighborhoods foreclosures have led to abandoned buildings. Mayor Tom Menino put together a foreclosure intervention team that was hard at work in Dorchester.

A front-end loader was used to clean up the trash that has accumulated between two abandoned properties.

"What's happened here is that this is apparently construction waste that has been dumped here," said Evelyn Friedman, of the Department of Neighborhood Development.

The two three-deckers were foreclosed on months ago and have been more than a dumping ground. The boarded up buildings have attracted illegal activity.

"All time of the night -- in and out -- people are tearing the wood off the windows, going in there and doing who knows what," neighbor Atria Horton said.

Neighbor Bertha Flythe watched as inmates brought in by correction officials cleaned up the property. She is a lifelong resident of the neighborhood and said that she does not want to see the area go down hill.

"I would try to get good people in it that will help to take care of the neighborhood. That's the purpose. We want caring people to live in this neighborhood," she said.

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