The Jackson City Council approved demolishing four more abandoned buildings at its meeting on May 5, continuing its effort to clean up blighted areas throughout the city, like the area surrounding the Jackson Zoo.
“I’m so glad. I hope they do go ahead and get this out,” neighbor Velma Stokes told the Mississippi Free Press of one of the properties approved for demolition. “It’s been burned a long, long, long time, standing up just like that…after a while the grass gon cover the house.”
The building set to be demolished near her home, a duplex on Marks Avenue, burnt down in 2015. Although the property previously had tenants, Stokes said, it was empty at the time of the fire.
The four properties approved for demolition last week are among hundreds of properties and structures that the City of Jackson declared as menace properties in recent years, and among 37 ordered for demolition or cleanup in 2026 alone.
While a significant number of the properties declared as menaces in Jackson require demolitions, other properties only need cleaning, with remedies including trash removal, cutting grass and weeds or removing cars from grass, city records show.
Abandoned homes like the ones that the city wants demolished, however, are linked to increased crime rates.
More Work Ahead
A few miles south, property owner and roofer Kenneth Love is hopeful that the city will tear down more than what has already been approved for demolition on Kingswood Avenue.
The previous owners of a home at 2816 Kingswood Drive were in the process of remodeling the home when it burned down. The metal roof had been replaced not long before the fire began, but it was subsequently abandoned and added to the long list of Jackson’s blighted properties.
“I’m the one that ended up calling the fire department,” Love said. “…the people left out of there and about 30 minutes after they left, the back of the house just (went up in flames).”
Love, who is remodeling a home near the proposed demolition site, is worried his property will burn down the same way the other property did—after a visit from unwelcomed guests allegedly attempting to squat at the property.
“They broke out the window right there straight ahead, so I boarded everything up,” Love said, detailing his interactions with the alleged squatters. “They took the boards off, broke another window out and came in and pulled all the wire out.”
Love showed the Mississippi Free Press the site where the intruders are believed to have started a small fire in the home on top of a cinder block in the would-be living room, a common issue when the weather gets cold.
He believes that demolishing the other nearby abandoned buildings will discourage squatters from remaining in the area and entering homes like his again.
Costs of Demolitions
The City set aside upwards of $52,500 to have Valera Management, a real estate and property development firm based in Jackson, demolish the properties at 2816 Kingswood Ave., 1355 Marks Ave. and 744 Monterey St. A total of $17,500 has been set aside for each property.
Jackson also intends to pay $6,000 to Richardson and Richardson Enterprises to demolish a structure at 2749 Terry Road. Richardson and Richardson is another real estate and property management company based in Jackson.
The City is paying another $2,240 to board up an abandoned structure at 1219 McCluer Road. Jones Landscaping, which is set to handle the McCluer Road property, is also set to remove trash and other debris from the property.
A 2010 law allows Jackson to fine property owners up to $1,500 or half of the cost of work, whichever is more, to clean up and tear down abandoned properties.
