City-owned properties in Cleveland Heights being sold for $100

CLEVELAND HEIGHTS, Ohio - The Cleveland Heights City Council voted unanimously on Tuesday to allow residents to purchase city-owned property for $100.

The catch is that the property has to be land that was foreclosed on and torn down. The other catch: You need to own the property adjacent.

Mayor Edward Kelley said over the last 18 months, about 40 homes have been demolished that were once eye-sores in the community.

“These houses that we have torn down, they are usually the worse houses on the street,” the mayor said. “We want to work with the neighbors. We want to work with the neighborhood. We want to make sure that something good happens.”

The money to tear down the vacant and boarded-up properties came from a federal grant called the Neighborhood Stabilization Program. The city was awarded $2.5 million to help improve the area. Twelve homes have been rehabbed, eight have been sold and four are still on the market.

"I expect some of our neighbors to come up with some creative things,” Kelley said. “Expand their rose gardens, maybe do a little more gardening."

The news of adjacent property being available at such a low cost was music to the ears of Sandra Granham. She lives next to a vacant property that became the home to, “drugs and unwanted elements."

“We all stood out here and clapped when the first bulldozer went through the house," Granham said.

Granham told NewsChannel5 she plans to ask the city about buying the land.