Thousands of Chicago Homes for Druggies, Rapists and Gang-Bangers

More than 18,000 houses and apartment buildings throughout the city of Chicago have been abandoned, victims of a mortgage crisis that morphed into a plague of derelict housing.

If all of those vacant houses and apartments stood together, they'd rival one of Chicago's mid-sized suburbs in the number of rooftops — an Orland Park, a Wheaton, an Oak Park.

Imagine an entire village left to scrappers, gang-bangers, druggies and predators.

On Chicago's South Side, there's no need to imagine. Year after year, in the wake of the subprime lending crisis, a festering blight crept up on Chicago Lawn and now threatens to send it the way of the city's most troubled neighborhoods.  

The Chicago Reporter offers a deep look at the problem and tells the story of one house, a long-abandoned two-flat at 6210 South Fairfield Avenue that represents everything gone wrong here, from the banks and City Hall to this block and every other one like it in the city.

» Watch Chicago's vacancy epidemic spread from 2008 to 2013 in a graphic by The Chicago Reporter

Staring at 6210 South Fairfield, Andrew Durden says: "There was people coming in and out of there every day. ... They were drinking, drugging, living, sexing, gang-banging and probably raping girls in there."

Indeed, the rape of a young girl in the middle of the day outside of that house would move the neighborhood to stake a claim on the property and hold someone accountable.

The enormity of the city's problem, according to The Chicago Reporter, and its cost to Chicago taxpayers staggers the mind:

• of the 18,000 vacant single-family homes and apartment buildings, half have been empty for at least three years
• 6,000 are in the midst of a foreclosure process that can last more than 800 days
• these properties account for 1,100 housing court cases the last two years
• taxpayers have spent $36 million over three years to board up or demolish abandoned homes
• only $453,000 has been recouped by the city from the banks and investors that hold papers on these properties

Father "Tony" Pizzo, pastor at St. Rita of Cascia Catholic Church, worries about the children who pass by these houses on their way to school.

"It's hard for me to drive through my own neighborhood because I see these boarded-up houses," the priest says. "I think, 'Oh, God, this is where my people live.'"

He knew something had to be done. And so the good people who dwell on South Fairfield Avenue in Chicago Lawn came together and set out to reclaim the house at 6210 — and maybe, eventually, their entire neighborhood.

Many questions arise out of their four-year struggle:

• Why is it so difficult to get a response from the banks and investors?
• Why won't the city go after the banks?
• Why can't more vacant homes be pulled from legal and financial limbo?