Photographer Kevin Bauman didn't like what he saw in his hometown of Detroit in the mid-1990s. Homes were being abandoned, willingly or not, and the hollowed-out houses became refuges for drug dealers, squatters and perverts. So he did what came naturally. "I just took pictures of fascinating things," he says, meaning abandoned houses. He started driving all around the massive city, stumbling upon empty homes--some dilapidated, some gorgeous--pulling over the car, setting up his tripod and shooting.

Eventually, the project turned into the new website 100AbandonedHouses.com. Bauman's series provides just a glimpse of what has become a citywide, and nationwide, crisis. There are tens of thousands of abandoned houses in Detroit. Across the United States, more than 19 million homes sit empty.

CLICK BELOW TO VIEW THESE HOUSES IN A FULL-SCREEN GALLERY

As he drove around the city over more than a decade, Bauman couldn't help but wonder, "What happened in that house? What kinds of stories does it have to tell?" He'll probably never know, he acknowledges, especially because sometimes an abandoned house is burned to the ground just days after he photographs it. "They can disappear overnight," he says.

"You shoot enough over a period of time and it gets a little depressing. It gets to you after a while," Bauman says. Still, he hopes that his project raises awareness. (He already receives emails from Americans who want to replicate the series in their own cities and from Europeans who don't understand why the houses are empty.) He plans to donate a portion of any money he makes from selling prints to local organizations like Habitat for Humanity and the Greening of Detroit.

"Every mayor says he'll take care of the problem but the houses get abandoned faster than they can knock them down," Bauman says. Sometimes when he would stop to photograph a house, neighbors from well-kept homes next door would approach him and, believing that he worked for the government, ask for help. All he could offer was art.

To see all the houses, visit 100 Abandoned Houses. To order prints, contact Bauman at kevin@100abandonedhouses.com.