South Union residents say they’ve been waiting for years for the city to take action against nuisance homes with overgrown yards.

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — After almost a year, homeowners in a southern neighborhood are still waiting for an abandoned house to be cleaned out.

“We maintain our homes. We take pride in our homes,” said Brandon Smith, who purchased a home on Mount Pleasant Street in late 2022.

But throughout Smith’s life in Mount Pleasant, he said the house next door was a problem.

The windows of the house are boarded up. No one lives there and no one mows the lawn.

“The last time it was cut off? Shoot. I don’t even know. I can’t even tell you,” said Craig Jones, who also lives in Mount Pleasant.

Although it’s not his responsibility, Smith said he asked his landscaper to cut some weeds as poison ivy from the adjacent yard began to take over his fence. But he says he can no longer keep up.

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“It’s gotten so out of hand. I don’t even think I could afford to have someone mow it at this point,” Smith said.

Eyewitness News went to the address listed by the owner, which also appears to be an abandoned house. Land records show the owner owes $17,000 in back taxes on the home.

Smith showed Eyewitness News his emails to the city dating back to July 2023. In January, the city issued a trespass notice to the house.

A city spokesperson told Eyewitness News the most recent inspection of the home was on May 15 and the homeowner was again notified of the code violations.

“People go behind the house to go to the bathroom. There are rodents there. Stray animals go back there,” Smith said.

After Eyewitness News emailed the city Thursday, a spokesperson said a city contractor would be there within two weeks to cut the grass.

The city said it would then put a lien on the house to recoup the cost. But for every day it takes, homeowners say it costs the South Union neighborhood dearly.

“It makes it look like it’s a bad neighborhood,” Jones said.

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