Home losses at record pace in South Bend, St. Joseph County

By JEFF PARROTT, South Bend Tribune Staff Writer

SOUTH BEND - It's 10 a.m. on a Saturday, and Becky Kaiser stirs a big pot of chili in her kitchen on Diamond Avenue. Cupcakes, pies and cookies prepared by neighbors cover her dining room table.

But today is not exactly a celebration. These delectables are a sort of payment for some much-needed services. They will be devoured by a group of Notre Dame architecture students who have volunteered to clean up the exteriors of vacant homes that litter the block.

Kaiser, as a member of a neighborhood association committee, helped organize the effort. She hopes improving the old houses' appearance will make them less attractive to homeless squatters and drug dealers.

"With vacant houses, you bring in a totally different type of person," Kaiser said. "It's upping the crime rate. It all boils down to our quality of life."

She should know. About one of every three houses in Kaiser's neighborhood stood vacant in December, according to U.S. Postal Service data, compared to a citywide vacancy rate of about 11 percent.

That's because in recent years, her near-northwest-side neighborhood has been devastated by mortgage foreclosures, moreso than any other part of St. Joseph County, according to a Tribune computer-assisted analysis of public records.