Dealing with abandoned homes

With brown lawns and a backyard swimming pool that resembled a cesspool, foreclosed homes were so rundown in one local cul-de-sac that residents sprang into action to clean up after their former neighbors.
Karen Maeshiro in the Daily News.
Stung by the statewide mortgage crisis, nearly 30percent of the 14 homes in Scranton Court are in foreclosure - and four of those are vacant.

With foreclosures rising in Palmdale - as well as the region - the city recently passed an ordinance designed to prevent foreclosed homes from deteriorating and becoming safety hazards or magnets for crime.