They are typically crack houses, homes of criminality.

My city has been bulldozing them by the thousands.

In order to save them, you would have to make them habitable again, build them, heat them, etc. Flint is in a cold climate, so is my city. It's obviously easier to care for the homeless in big buildings rather than heating indidvidual decrepit homes.

Our citizens groups and neighborhood alliances are largely in favor of bulldozing precisely because of safety issues.

Where did the people go?

To the suburbs.

This is a problem in America. The cities emptied as people moved out. now we have new builds wa out in exurbia, while the first ring suburbs are emptying quickly. The first ring suburb around my city is like a moat on the boundaryline: no one lives there.

The USA has a decentralized political structure. There is no central planning. Cities incorporate townships which straddle two cities, all within a country government. We have multiple layers of government that would make your head spin, and none of them seem to plan things together.

In my town, I am represented by a council member overseeing my district of the city, and that council member works as a balance against the mayor and city Hall, but beyond that, I am represented by a County rep. who balances the county commissioner, and then within the council district, and the city borders, and the county borders, there are separate townships who also have forms of representation. We're talking about four layers of government before you even move to the state level. This is precisely why we have poor urban planning in the US, and why the very idea of abandoned homes is a reality.

You can buy the homes for $1 and maintain them yourself, but no one does.

$1!!!!