As the mortgage crisis has spread across America, Peoria has seen its share of abandoned or foreclosed homes threatening the safety and appearance of neighborhoods. In response, an interdepartmental task force led by the city manager is focusing on what to do about the empty houses and how to prevent more from joining the list.

The Finance Department reports weekly on addresses where water service has been canceled or cut. That data is augmented with information from other city divisions, such as Code Compliance and Solid Waste, and from foreclosure-related Web sites. At the end of summer, there were about 2,300 vacant homes in Peoria, though not necessarily due to foreclosure.

While this provides a rough sketch of the problem, there are limits to what the city can do about individual properties.

"The city does not have the ability to go on the property unless it is an emergency hazard," says Bill Patena, Peoria’s manager of Neighborhood Services. "If an issue is life threatening – or involves securing property, addressing a potential fire hazard or an improperly secured swimming pool -- the city can act within 24 hours."

Patena says that issues such as garbage, rubbish or weeds – annoyances rather than emergencies – must go through the regular abatement process, which takes approximately 60 days.

Sometimes it’s a challenge to find out who holds title to a property. Once responsibility is assigned, it’s a matter of getting the owner, bank or realtor to stay on top of the situation.

From the city’s perspective, the preferred solutions are to help people stay in their houses or, barring that, get new residents moved in as quickly as possible.

Members of the Foreclosure Task Force have met with officials from organizations such as the Arizona Foreclosure Prevention Task Force and Neighborhood Housing Services, which provide education and counseling for homeowners who are behind on their mortgages. The Human Resources Department has set up financial seminars for city employees, some of whom are Peoria homeowners, and city officials are looking into the possibility of partnering with schools and religious congregations to offer additional financial workshops for the public.

During the summer, Peoria raised the cap on its aid to low-income first-time home buyers from $10,000 to $15,000 if the recipient was purchasing a foreclosed property. The move proved popular, and the grant money was used up in about 90 days.