Red signs with white X’s mark building after building in the Prospect neighborhood. There are hundreds of blighted homes across the city of Johnstown.

“They need to get this stuff out of here,” said one Prospect resident.

A condemned sign hangs in the window of the Johnstown home Joe Warhul grew up in.

“It’s a house where my mother used to take us all to her bedroom closet and mark our names and height. Now, it’s just another rotted-down house,” said Warhul, a Moxham resident who lives on Clover Street.

Down the street, another home was condemned days ago.

“It’s horrible. They’re fire traps is what I’m concerned about. These homes are all close together,” said Mary Zagrod, a Moxham resident.

Johnstown officials have a plan to start tearing down some of the 1400 estimated blighted buildings in the city. The Johnstown Redevelopment Authority (JRA) bought an excavator for about $40,000. The city will provide the labor to knock down vacant properties, as early as next week.

“What I’d like to do is get rid of the blight and in the process create green-space,” said Curt Davis,  the newly-appointed interim city manager.

Each demolition could cost up to $8-$10,000 depending on the size of the building.

“This isn’t the answer, this is one piece of the puzzle,” said Melissa Komar, the executive director of the JRA.

The city also plans to work with local utility companies to create a database of vacant properties, so they can eventually demolish them. However, the demolitions won’t happen overnight.

“I think finding money may be an issue and on top of that: finding owners,” Davis said.

Residents said blight brings crime, safety hazards and lowers property values.

“Who’s going to buy a house when you have ten blighted ones laying around you,” Warhul said.

While Warhul’s childhood home was bought by a neighbor and will be torn down to expand the backyard, dozens of other houses sit abandoned and condemned, their fate still unknown.