How one Pittsburgh-area borough is capitalizing on blight to create jobs

It's no secret that many boroughs in the Mon Valley are riddled with abandoned and decaying homes. 

Some are too far gone to be restored by even the most motivated house-flipper. Demolishing these blighted buildings can involve hiring outside companies to do the work for a lot of cash. So instead, local and federal lawmakers found a way to keep that money inside the area by capitalizing on the blight to create jobs.

In North Braddock, there are 1,040 blighted parcels. Demolishing a house on each one of those parcels would cost an estimated $15 million. 

"It is actually a lot of money for boroughs to have to come in and take down these buildings," said Congresswoman Summer Lee.

But the $1 million community project fund brought by Lee to the borough won't be used to hire contractors and their wrecking crews. 

"It's not just about boarding up the windows or taking down some of these buildings, because we know, again, long step," said Lee. 

Instead, the borough will use the funds to buy heavy demolition equipment and offer workforce training so there will be jobs for people who want to battle blight on the borough's own crew.  

"It's something that is going to last longer than this money will, and something that we will be able to continue to invest in in the future," said Lee.

Lee says she wants to see that investment matched and exceeded by stakeholders in the Mon Valley and beyond.

"The call to our nonprofit community, the call to our business community, to the sustainable developers who are from this region, to say, 'come back home, to invest back home,'" said Lee.  

Allegheny County is also adding more tools to its belt, like $1 million for blight removal around the Mon Valley and the health department's new nuisance abatement program.

"We heard from you that you wanted more tools so that you could hold property owners who aren't caring for their properties accountable," said Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato.

That will let the health department hire contractors to solve public health problems on blighted properties, like garbage piles and rodent infestations.

Lee says this revitalization won't happen overnight.

"Our community didn't get in this shape, in these conditions, by itself. This has been decades of intentional disinvestment, decades of neglect," Lee said. 

While North Braddock has lost more than 4,000 people, half its population, since 1980, it's clear those who remain see the beauty of the borough and the backbone of its people.

While Lee lives in Swissvale now, she was born and raised in North Braddock and says she hopes more people from the Mon Valley will continue to run for elected office to make a difference in the region.