Neighbors want abandoned house declared nuisance
A group of neighbors in the Greenacres area is taking action against a woman they say abandoned her home, leaving a health and fire hazard, a magnet for crime and an eyesore.
The residents of the Mission Villa manufactured home park claim that Linda Bradley, the owner of the residence at 19705 E. Maxwell Ave., hasn’t lived there since 1998.
“She just packed up and left it,” said Rondalee Kraft, the Block Watch captain for the neighborhood.
Knee-high weeds have taken over the front yard, the windows are broken out and the front and back doors are wide open. A pile of old clothes and towels is trickling down the back steps, covered in mold. Small critters – including skunks and mice – inhabit the place.
When contacted by phone Tuesday, Bradley said she left the home for health reasons, and was not notified that both doors had been kicked in.
She returned to the home this week and boarded up the back door.
“The cleaning up process is starting, and it’s not done by any means,” Bradley said. “I understand their position, I really do. But I honestly didn’t know,” how bad the house had gotten.
“It’s just a mess,” said Stan Hills, who lives next door to Bradley’s property. “I hate to even take my garbage out. The stench is unbearable.”
When Bradley allegedly left sometime in 1998, she left behind several cats. For two years Bradley returned once a week to feed them, Kraft said.
“You’d walk by and see the cats clawing to get out. Eventually they just started tearing up the screens,” Kraft said.
In 2000, residents sent Bradley a letter asking her to come and remove several cats she left behind when she moved, which she did. She hasn’t returned since, Kraft said. The cat feces was never cleaned up.
Last Thursday, Kraft rallied residents together at Barker Center, an alternative high school at Mission and Barker, to discuss what to do.
In addition to the stench and the mess, Kraft said, children have been seen playing in and around the house, which poses a health risk.
“I wouldn’t want my children playing around in there. God knows what kinds of diseases there could be,” Kraft said.
Neighbors also claim to have seen transients coming and going from the home, causing concern about increased crime in the neighborhood.
“I guarantee if the problem is not solved, the crime will get worse,” said Deputy Travis Pendell, a crime prevention officer for the Spokane County Sheriff’s Office.
Pendell and Deputy Greg Snyder attended the Block Watch meeting with residents Thursday to help advise them what to do next.
Kraft and the other Mission Villa residents are hoping they can convince Spokane County code enforcement that the residence is a “public nuisance,” and force Bradley to sell or have the house declared condemned. Mission Villa is located in an unincorporated area of Spokane County, and is not subject to city codes.
The residents could use Safe Streets, a citizen-driven program used in the county and the city of Spokane Valley to deal with nuisance and criminal activities, Pendell said.
The program provides neighborhood groups with the tools to get properties declared public nuisances, and, if necessary, take the owners to small claims court.
But it’s up to county health and code enforcement staff to forward the complaint to the prosecutor’s office for charges, Snyder said.
“Nine out of 10 of these cases don’t make it to court because the owners go ‘Oh, my gosh,’ ” once threatened with a lawsuit, and agree to comply, Snyder said.
Residents already filed a letter of complaint with the county and Valley Fire in 2001, and they plan to do it again, Kraft said.
Bradley said she received a letter from the Block Watch residents last week, and agrees she has her work cut out for her. She said she will likely try to repair the damages, and attempt to sell the place.
“It does need to be cleaned up; I will not argue that at all. And it is happening,” Bradley said.