On Wednesday, the City of Fort Wayne announced buyouts of eight homes affected by floods from last June.
Fort Wayne’s Board of Public Works approved a grant agreement of $600,000 to buy the homes located along the Fairfield Ditch and the St. Marys River.
25 percent of the money will come from the City and Maumee River Basin Commission, while funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency will cover the rest.
The grant is part of a pre-mitigation program in which residents who experience frequent flood damage tell the City that they want to be bought out.
City spokesman Frank Suarez says the goal of the program is to provide relief to residents and neighborhoods.
“Sometimes they get to a point where they realize it’s just not viable to continue to fix it up after it’s been flooded five or six times,” says Suarez. “So I think that’s what we’re looking at for the residents in these situations.”
The properties will be demolished and transformed into greenspace.
