Neighbors doing all they can in Detroit communities to protect vacant houses

Neighbors are trying to take care of their neighborhoods by helping out the vacant homes and plots of land.

Excerpt:

And in the city of Detroit, where the foreclosure crisis has worsened decades of decay, guarding foreclosed and vacant houses against blight and burglars has become the mission of thousands of volunteers.

"A very big issue is how homes look from the street," said Steve Wasko, an Indian Village resident and spokesman for Detroit Public Schools who routinely patrols his neighborhood making minor repairs to vacant homes.

In Detroit neighborhoods such as Boston-Edison and Indian Village, citizen volunteers plant flowers at vacant houses, mow the lawns and take turns parking their cars in the driveways to make the vacant homes appear occupied.

Volunteers hang curtains in vacant windows and install motion detectors in empty houses to catch burglars in the act, with several arrests recorded in Indian Village alone.

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