Over a dozen REALTORS® showed up at City Hall on Tuesday evening for the much-anticipated unveiling of the City of Reading's new Housing and Blight Strategy.
Instead they were greeted by a locked door.
This Housing and Blight Strategy is the culmination of an enormous collaborative effort, bringing together leaders from throughout the community to address the issues related to housing in Reading. City administration staff, City Council, the Redevelopment Authority, the Housing Authority, the Blighted Property Review Board, and various community organizations had planned to reveal the findings of the study at Tuesday's meeting, which was scheduled months in advance. However, the meeting was cancelled without notice, and without explanation.
City officials have recently estimated that there are roughly 3,500 blighted properties within the City of Reading. Blighted and abandoned properties undermine the fabric of communities, impose significant costs on local government, erode property values, and deter investment. By putting together a comprehensive plan, and implementing the recommendations of the Housing and Blight Strategy, the City Government would make major strides in solving these issues.
The Reading-Berks Association of REALTORS® supports efforts by the City of Reading to improve housing, promote homeownership, and eliminate blight within our communities. After several years of waiting for a plan to eliminate blight, our members arrived at City Hall on Tuesday to stand with Reading and express their support for this enormous step in improving the state of housing within the City.
The future of the City of Reading rests on whether or not the City Government can successfully reduce and eliminate blight. We need to save these abandoned properties and return them to the hands of property owners who will take care of them and put them to a variety of productive uses. The longer we wait on deciding on and enacting solutions, the longer they will stay abandoned and continue to deteriorate until they are no longer able to be saved.