Talk with the local police and see what the issues are. 

It's poloiitcal and beyond the scope and spirit of these forums so let's not get off on that tangent and stay into solution.mode.There are many agencies that can be helpful, including municipalities, counties, police and fire, vector control (mosquitos, etc.) and animal control.

It is your objective to get that building for as little as possible – to create equity – remember banks don’t care – you need to education them – help the bank to help you by showing all the negative items about the property – make it easy for them to accept your offer.Write a cover letter stating what you will do if they accept your offer; secure the property, insure the house, pay all cash, take care maintenance problems immediately, protect and secure the house form squatters, have the electric turned on, notify the water department, notify the local police to keep an eye out for vandals...etc.Since no one at the bank can make a decision as fast as you want, put a drop dead date in your offer.

We did have a drug dealing issue with the next door house, but over time with some pressure on the RE investor who owned the property, and working with the police, we turned that situation around.

This was actually a topic that was presented and backed by a police chief in a community here in VA where a group of investors wanted to facilitate a deal with the city to acquire abandoned city-owned properties. 

This is a rough area so calling the police is a minimum 1-2 hour wait.

They did not police their product.

How about devoting some resources to clearing out the backlog of permits or having some more police to help catch real criminals?  

I live in Milwaukee and there are a lot of "Polish Flats" where the older homes were raised to allow for egress and entrance into a lower level unit to accommodate a larger family size (inter generational living).  

If you are a public servant (EMT, nurse, teacher or work at a school, work at a non-profit organization, military, police) then you can get your loans paid off in 10 years through the Public Service Loan forgiveness program.