Neighborhood crime rises with foreclosures

CLEVELAND, Nov. 19 (UPI) -- Violent crime in Cleveland's working-class Slavic Village neighborhood rose dramatically with the number of home foreclosures, a broadcast report said Monday.

The once predominantly Central and Eastern European neighborhood, which has recorded more foreclosure filings in the past three months than any other U.S. ZIP code, has seen an exponential increase in gang-related violent crime, CNN reported.

A 12-year-old girl was shot leaving a neighborhood candy store, caught in a crossfire from suspected dealers engaged in a drug war, including one suspected dealer living in a foreclosed home, CNN said.

Slavic Village, revitalized in the late 1970s and 1980s, has more than 800 houses sitting vacant and moldering or serving as homes to squatters and looters, Cuyahoga County Treasurer Jim Rokakis said.

Squatters and looters move into a foreclosed home almost immediately after homeowners are forced to move out, county Foreclosure Prevention Program Director Mark Wiseman said.

"In the inner city, it takes about 72 hours for a house to be looted after it is vacant," he told the network.

When a house is derelict, people dump garbage in the yard, rather than pay for haulage, CNN said.

Residents have tried to fight back, organizing neighborhood watch groups and lobbying police.

But many feel Cleveland police "are too often missing in action," CNN said.