Buying a house for himself makes sense, but it's still not related to the business, and the other 73 are just dead weight.
And there are benefits to those houses. He could, for example, pick nicer ones and hire people for security and give them free rent in a house as part of their job. With what he paid, he could even give them a "rent to own" mortgage!
He could include the house, and even just minimum wage. Minimum wage is a livable wage in a very, very economically depressed area (look at what housing costs here!), but at the same time, minimum wage + free housing or rent to own housing is a great wage.
He could start a hacker hostel. Those houses give loads of opportunity.
He just needs to stabilize things a bit. But security would do that. Especially if security = 20 people. He just needs a real business plan, or at least to move towards something.
Another way to look at it is, imagine if he used the house to hire security, maintenance people, groundskeepers, cleaning personelle/janitors, and on and on.
Now, he's a major employer in the area.
Now, those left that are honest? Are actively fighting to protect their jobs!
Where I live, the city is legally bound to seize and then auction off houses for unpaid property tax.
There are even interesting things, such a legally mandated grace periods, and the original owner can buy back up to one year after auction.
And this sure sounds like a place where property taxes might default.
- Towns don't "turn around" spontaneously.
- people don't usually gamble every dollar they have
That's why this gentleman is a great object of curiosity. He's the perfect story of sheltered, with money, hitting reality and being flummoxed.