Sometimes even a temporary fix is better than doing nothing at all.  One of the things that struck me about the article were the comments by the neighbors who were pretty happy to have a neat, clean well maintained house next to them, never mind who the owners were, rather than an eyesore.  Cities & towns are pretty strapped for cash these days & I doubt that my town would want the legal responsibility of maintaining empy houses or would even have the cash to do so.  I was interested also to see that the rent he was charging "$300+" per month was affordable to his tenants.  Better that for the tenants and their children than a homeless shelter or the streets.  So, all in all, not a bad solution.