HOWARD COUNTY, Ind. (WOWO): The City of Kokomo has been awarded over $1.3 million to cleanup blighted properties.

Lt. Governor Sue Ellspermann announced that the approval for Kokomo’s funding, through the Hardest Hit Fund Blight Elimination Program, was issued Thursday afternoon.

The Blight Elimination Program provides an opportunity for local units of government in all 92 Indiana counties to demolish uninhabitable homes to decrease foreclosures.

The City of Kokomo was the only unit of government in Howard County to apply for funding.

“We have been aggressive in the past about addressing unsafe structures in order to make the City of Kokomo’s residential neighborhoods safer and a more attractive,” said Kokomo Mayor Greg Goodnight. “These funds will enable us to address dozens of abandoned and dilapidated houses that are neighborhood eyesores and driving down property values of nearby homeowners.”