Since he lost his home, he has roamed the streets here, sleeping at the train station, in boarded-up homes or on friends' couches, he said.

There are boarded-up homes and empty storefronts, rotten wood and peeling paint.

But he said they would encourage the rehabilitation of more than 100 boarded-up homes throughout the city.

He said he had revived a village that was once a jumble of boarded-up homes and defunct businesses.

Many of the residents were moving into suburban neighborhoods, leaving the area with boarded-up homes and overgrown lots.

But the streets nearby are lined with boarded-up homes, restaurants and hotels.

Four hundred families are on a waiting list for boarded-up homes in the area.

Margaret Gaines, 44, a home health-care worker who has boarded-up homes all around her, was even more blunt.

The scammers acquired more than 500 buildings with federal backing, then dumped them, leaving boarded-up and derelict homes in areas that were struggling to rebuild.

The boarded-up home in Bridgeport is among the thousands in foreclosure.