Will the foreclosure crisis kill Chicago?

As someone whose company boards up homes, Steve Werner has seen houses stripped clean of copper wire, pipes and anything else that scrap dealers will buy. He’s walked into others with food still sitting on the kitchen counter. His crews run across the occasional abandoned pet, left to fend for itself with a bag of dog food dumped on the floor…

…It’s one shock among many: Chicago had 33,902 vacant homes at midyear, up 22 percent from the end of 2010, according to DePaul University’s Institute for Housing Studies. In some census tracts in South Side neighborhoods such as Englewood and Back of the Yards, 1 in 6 homes is vacant…Please click here to read  Alby Gallun and Micah Maidenberg’s story in Crain’s Chicago Business.