As Camden prepares to raze homes, feelings are mixed

Camden officials hired two partners this week to help orchestrate the demolition of nearly 600 houses in the city, as some residents expressed concern over the number of empty lots that will result from the initiative.

Camden will partner with the Cooper's Ferry Partnership and the Camden County Improvement Authority to organize and expedite the demolition of the houses in the next two years.

City Council voted this week to pay the authority $250,000 to oversee all demolition contracts.

The city is seeking bids for the demolition of 64 homes. For Phase II, the city will seek five contractors to take down an additional 534. That request for bids has not gone out yet.

Cooper's Ferry will be the agent for utility shutoffs. Council voted Tuesday to pay it $40,000 for that work.

Since the announcement of the plan, residents have expressed both gratitude and concern over whether that many houses should come down.

Mary Cortez of Cramer Hill said that razing a house that could be sold at a low price for renovation robs the city of needed taxpayers.

"I don't think all the homes they are saying can't be saved really can't be," she said. "I think there's a lack of imagination, of hope on their part."

Angel Cordero, a longtime activist in East Camden, said the project worries him. He implored the city to offer residents the opportunity to purchase and rehabilitate the properties.

"It would be a desert. I have not seen one house taken down and something built," Cordero said. "There's a need for housing in Camden, there's a need for ownership of housing in Camden, and this is a perfect opportunity to see residents of Camden getting into these homes for practically nothing, rehabbing them and living there."

City spokesman Robert Corrales said that the city would consider selling abandoned properties to buyers who can prove they have the finances, the plan, and the timeline to develop them, but added that no formal program exists.

"We have people calling all the time saying they want to be handed properties. If you can't show us what will happen to the home, the financials, and the proof you're going to do the work, that's not plausible," he said. "We don't want people getting these properties and then they just stand there."

Maritza Araica, 63, wants to buy the two abandoned properties that sandwich her rowhouse on North 32d Street in East Camden.

For 10 years, the homes have been vacant, and she has dealt with a fire, squatters, and weeds so high a man hid in them to mug a woman a few years ago.

"I don't want the house to be knocked down, because there are three stuck together and it's going to look ugly," Araica said in Spanish. "I want to buy the houses so I can have my kids close to me."

Araica's daughter, Anna, said her mother has tried to buy the buildings but was quoted $30,000 for each due to back taxes and foreclosure costs. She said that if her mother could get the houses cheaper, she would have the money to rehabilitate them and then her two brothers would move in.

"She has the money and the interest in doing this," said Araica, whose husband is a contractor who works for the City of Trenton rehabilitating vacant homes.

Councilman Brian Coleman, who represents Whitman Park, where the first phase of demolitions will take place, said there is a redevelopment plan for the neighborhood that includes plans for new home construction on the soon-to-be-vacant lots.

"You've got to tear them down before you can build them up," Coleman said. "This is step one."

Coleman said the demolitions also will create jobs for Camden residents.

"The idea is to strengthen the neighborhood by putting people back to work building in their neighborhoods. We want them to be part of the total process," he said.