Bridgeport Mayor Bill Finch announced an influx of $6 million in federal funds to help save neighborhoods wrecked with foreclosure.

Finch spoke outside a bank-owned home on Sidney Street, a well maintained area.

?Bridgeport got the most amount of money of any city in the state because we have the biggest problem,? said Finch. ?We have foreclosures like this all over the place ? middle income houses where families used to live.?

The federal money will be used by the city to purchase or demolish abandoned and foreclosed homes. The homes that Bridgeport buys will be fixed up and hopefully sold to new buyers.

?An empty house is a threat to a neighborhood because if it's broken into or vandalized, if it's just uncared for it brings down the neighborhood, makes everybody feel bad and it hurts the neighborhood, hurts the people who live around it,? says Joan Carty, Housing Development Fund CEO.