HAVERHILL — With property foreclosures increasing, City Councilor Robert Scatamacchia said the city needs to prevent repossessed buildings from deteriorating.

Abandoned buildings can become targets for arsonists or havens for drug use, police said.

Scatamacchia said that's why he has placed the creation of a possible anti-blight ordinance on the agenda for tonight's City Council meeting at 7 in City Hall. Scatamacchia said Boston enacted an anti-blight rule some time ago, which requires lenders that foreclose on buildings to select a property manager whom authorities can contact if there are broken windows — or worse, if a door is open.

"It is often very difficult to contact property owners," Scatamacchia. "Very little care is given to foreclosed property," he said, especially if the owner lives in another part of the country.

"It protects the abutters," Scatamacchia said of an anti-blight regulation. "They have someone to contact."

"We'd love to have something like that," said fire Deputy Chief Lewis Poore. He estimated the Fire Department has a list of about 100 vacant/abandoned properties that it checks on to make sure they don't become fire hazards.

It's very difficult to reach a holding company in Arizona or California to report a problem in Haverhill, he said.

Thomas Faulkner, veteran president of Haverhill Bank, said Scatamacchia's proposed ordinance won't have any effect on his bank's operations. When his bank forecloses on property — and it hasn't so far this year — the bank makes sure it doesn't deteriorate.

"We have always taken possession of foreclosed property," he said. "We would be motivated to protect it."

Haverhill Bank foreclosed on two empty lots last year, Faulkner said. So far this year, he said, there is one loan that is 90 days past due, but no foreclosures.

Faulkner and others have said that a big factor in the rise in foreclosures is people taking on loans they couldn't handle.

"A lender does not do a borrower a favor by giving him a loan he cannot pay back," Faulkner said.