LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- The city of Louisville has a new plan to prevent trespassing and fires at abandoned homes.

Louisville Fire reports nearly half of all severe fires in the last three years have been at abandoned homes. Earlier this year, more than 60 firefighters battled a 3-alarm fire at a vacant church in downtown Louisville.

"When it gets cold, people are going to do what they need to try to seek shelter to try to get warm," Brian O'Neill, Louisville's fire chief said.

Tuesday morning a home on Vermont Avenue in Louisville's Shawnee neighborhood went up in flames.

Louisville Metro Police said abandoned properties are often hotspots for criminal activity.

Those fires pose a threat to people who might be inside, firefighters and nearby homes.

In the past three years, Louisville firefighters have responded to more than 300 fires in vacant buildings. 11 firefighters have been hurt. Chief O'Neill said 23% of those fires spread to nearby homes.

Louisville Metro Police said abandoned properties are often hotspots for criminal activity.

"It attracts crime, it attracts blight, it reduces property values and it contributes to a sense of lack of safety for community members," LMPD Chief Paul Humphrey said.

Firefighters have been going out in the field and looking for homes that are vacant or abandoned and working with Metro Codes and Regulations and LMPD. They flag those properties and get them boarded up right away to avoid trespassers.

Now, those departments are working together again on an abandoned properties team. The team will find safe and health solutions to public safety concerns surrounding vacant buildings. The goal is to reduce crime and fires and help people who are unhoused.

To report an abandoned property, call Metro 311.

On Monday, Louisville leaders announced a pilot program designed to turn abandoned vacant homes in the west end into affordable housing. The Affordable Housing Lien Forgiveness Pilot Program was established through Mayor Craig Greenberg's My Louisville Home Plan. The hope is to promote homeownership for low-to-moderate income families, while encouraging reinvestment in local neighborhoods. 

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