The practice of demolishing abandoned houses in Cleveland,Ohio is limited in its capacity to address underlying causes ofhousing injustice

In the past decade, Cleveland, Ohio has seen the demolition of 8,000 abandoned homes, with more than 5,000 further demolitions planned. Samuel Walker and Emily Rosenman argue that in asking cities with shrinking tax bases to address foreclosures – the aftereffects of the failure of speculative housing finance – the federal government is putting these municipalities in charge of cleaning up the local effects of a national financial crisis.