The city’s effort to address substandard housing continues as the City Council again condemned a house as unsafe.

The ordinance condemning the house at 523 N. Gladden St. and a demolition contract were approved during the council’s Nov. 14 meeting. The $6,300 demolition contract was awarded to St. Clair Trucking.

The owner of the structure has been given a reasonable opportunity to bring the building into compliance with the city’s minimum housing standards and the state’s building code, according to a city document.

If the city uses city money to pay for demolishing the building, a lien will be placed against the real property. The lien will have to be satisfied if and when the property is sold.

In recent years, the city has become more aggressive in dealing with structures that do not meet the minimum housing code and/or building codes.

Several years ago, the city adopted an ordinance designed to prevent property owners, particularly owners of significant historic properties, from allowing their properties to essentially be demolished by neglect.

During a meeting in September, the council reviewed a list of 103 substandard houses in the city, of which 16 are labeled as top priorities. Of those 16 substandard structures, there are 10 the city wants to address by the end of the year, according to a memorandum from John Rodman, the city’s director of community and cultural resources, to the mayor and council members. Several houses on the list have been demolished.

The list was developed by the city’s planning and building inspections personnel, with assistance from the Washington Police Department, which identified structures that have a history of being used for illegal activities.

“The reason we brought this up is there’s been some concern, at least on my part. I’d like to have clean city. When you have individuals, a lot of them are absentee owners, who don’t live in Washington or Beaufort County — they live elsewhere — they have a tendency, because of maybe for personal reasons they don’t have the financial capabilities to take care of the houses,” City Manager Bobby Roberson said at the September meeting. “Basically, the minimum housing code specifies that (taking care of houses). Even though the house is vacant, that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s not substandard. … I think the process is to identify those houses so it’s an ongoing process for the City Council not only for this year but every year.”