City To Raze House Damaged Beyond Repair

The Spokane City Council last week approved demolition of a North Side home that has been a source of contention for more than a decade.

The house at 1111 W. Augusta, owned by Kathleen Henry, had been condemned and ruled unfit by a city building panel.

The city fire department and health department both had ruled it a hazard. In 1991 the Postal Service stopped delivering mail, saying the piles of garbage on the front porch made it unsafe for carriers.

Feces, urine and garbage accumulated in the home, and 18 tons of waste were hauled out by the owner and her daughter this year.

When city garbage crews went in to help clean the home in March, two haulers were overcome by odors and felt dizzy.

“She had an accumulation problem,” Henry’s attorney, Terrence Sawyer, told the council.

Sawyer asked council members to delay demolition so the home could be sold to interested rehabbers and kept on the housing market.

Henry has taken a job in Olympia, and her daughter wants to assume responsibility for the home, selling it to pay off liens. The fact that Henry made an effort to clean up the home shows she is acting in good faith, her attorney said.

But after hearing from inspectors and neighbors, the council refused, saying problems are too great to even warrant repair.

“We’re talking about a place with severe structural damage because there’s been feces and urine ground into the walls,” said council member Chris Anderson.

“That house is falling down. It’s rotten. It is full of urine,” added Mildred Kingsley, whose daughter, Michelle Martin, lives at 1123 W. Augusta. “If you kept two big dogs in a house from November until the first of the year, what would you expect to find? That’s what you have.”

Martin said the home is bringing down property values and makes it harder for others to invest in their property.

As it turns out, the home cannot be demolished immediately. Henry has filed for bankruptcy, and permission to demolish must be approved by a federal bankruptcy judge.

Mike Piccolo, assistant city attorney, said he hopes a hearing on that issue can be held by the end of this month.

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