The IRE Resource Center is a major research library containing more than 23,250 investigative stories — both print and broadcast. These stories are searchable online or by contacting the Resource Center directly (573-882-3364 or rescntr@ire.org) where a researcher can help you pinpoint what you need. Browse or search the tipsheet section of our library below. Stories are not available for download but can be easily ordered by contacting the Resource Center:
Search results for "abandoned property" ...
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Bad Neighbor Banks: How Big Lenders Spread Blight
Across South Florida, on block after block, homes abandoned in the foreclosure crisis have become eyesores, depressing property values, and posing health and safety hazards for nearby families. The Sun Sentinel investigated and found who was responsible for letting these homes rot: some of the world’s largest banks.
Tags: Hazards; property; banks; public health; public safety
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Behind the Closing Curtains
An analysis of media reports, court records, company filings and interviews linked a theater creator to 88 theaters in 26 states. Fifty-eight of the theaters either never opened or were less than three years.
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Watchdog Report: Digging into City Hall's Money Mess
A two-month investigation found that the city of San Diego did not have records showing how much land it owned or how it was being used. The city did have an inventory of property, but it was in complete disarray. Not only was it missing land, but it also included property the city didn't own. And the city's records didn't always reflect how the land actually was being used. For instance, one parcel labeled as a street was actually a vacant lot. We found that the city also was neglecting some of its most valuable land. It owned a rat-infested house in La Jolla that had been vacant for more than a decade. A lot that a woman had bequeathed to the city to benefit parks and libraries was covered with trash.
Tags: land records; San Diego; La Jolla; abandoned land; vacated land; city land; public land; public property
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Lost-money fund mystifies most, angers one on list
This report from 1991 uncovers the lost-money fund which catalogs lost or abandoned property that has been turned over to the state. Sometimes the money consists of forgotten bank accounts, misplaced checks, or other sources. The total amount of the fund is upwards of $70 million and the North Carolina Escheat Fund Report is looking for the money's owners.
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Misery for Rent
This three part series investigates landlords who abuse loopholes in the rental system, how abandoned rentals lower the value of neighborhoods, how some rental properties in Iowa have fire safety problems, and how sometimes, it's tenants behaving badly that causes rental problems. There are also specific investigations, such as problems at a landmark Iowa City complex, and a tenant dispute in Cedar Rapids regarding a broken stove.
Tags: rental properties; landlords; tenants; Cedar Rapids; Iowa City
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Vendetta: Who's a Bigger Nuisance - Douglas Bruce or Denver's Property Police?
Douglas Bruce is a Denver resident who tried to make his living through buying and restoring abandoned property. However, he has run into frequent problems with the Denver police and court systems -- Westword chronicles his disputes with the courts.
Tags: real estate; absentee - landlords; slumlords; justice system
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The Florida Mile
A Washington City Paper investigation reveals that one of every six buildings along the Florida Ave. is an abandoned ruin, but "somehow the D.C. government hasn't noticed." The story finds that "District officials use the property-tax system not as a potential tool to facilitate the repair of vacant buildings, but as a club to blunt the likelihood that such properties will ever be refurbished." The reporter points to examples of misclassification of properties, which have cost the city thousands of dollars in uncollected taxes.
Tags: absentee ownership; nuisance properties; neighborhoods; Department of Housing and Community Development; taxes; condemned property; Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs
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Program to save homes fails; neighbors suffer
"When Detroit auctioned 503 homes in 1996, city officials hoped to promote home ownership, chip away at the chronic abandoned-property problem and bolster struggling neighborhoods . . . An investigation by The Detroit News into the results of the 1996 auction found that 313 of the 503 homes sold in the December 1996 bidding are abandoned, torn down or inhabited by squatters." In addition, the goal of increasing homeowners in the city failed with only 14 percent of purchasers occupying their homes. The auction "not only failed to give the city's real estate market the jolt initially desired, but also exposed a series of missteps by city officials in the land transactions." David Josar and Cameron McWhirter report more.
Tags: housing; Planning & Development Department; neighbors; property; taxes; vacant homes; real estate
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Zombieland
Baltimore Sun reporter James Haner "spent a year and a half in a slum enclave of East Baltimore known as 'Zombieland.'" With the use of a variety of public and proprietary databases, the Sun created an in-house database which "allowed Haner to establish links among slum landlords, drug dealers, urban decay and lead-poisoned children." The stories found in this series look at some of the individual drug lords in the area as well as the housing problems.
Tags: CAR criminal property owner rowhouses abandoned homes urban blight heroin demolition crime
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Trouble is the Only Stop on Abandoned Rail Lines
An investigation by the News Tribune finds that abandoned and little-used railroad lines were used by criminals to smuggle drugs and stolen property away from the eyes of the police. The tracks and surrounding rights-of-way, were rarely patrolled by law enforcement. (July 23, 1995)
Tags: Krane Trouble is the only stop on abandoned rail lines Contest entry Police 5 pages