Housing IssueVent this is, so vent I shall. Non job related so forgive me. I went to a neighborhood meeting last night - I think you can guess which city I live in (actually new of) from my screen name. A developer has bought a house in our neighborhood to set up living quarters for 10-14 men of probably non-legal status. The only furniture in this house in mattresses, taxis come and go at all hours, multiple cars are parked in the drive way. They moved in approximately one month ago. We now don' t feel safe in our neighborhood any longer. It' s our understanding they buy these houses and deduct the rent from their cash paychecks. Our homes were built in the early 60' s solid four sided brick on over 1/2 acre lots and the tax appraisals are in the mid-100' s. The other parts of our county are being developed in to $500 and up homes and don' t have the same issue as our side of the county. The want dog parks and bicycle lanes, we want safe neighborhoods. In the meeting we were told the county commissioners want more lower income housing in the county (HUD homes) for tax breaks, and the next sentence was they want to let our neighborhoods run down so developers can buy us out cheap and rebuild with mcmansions! I can' t afford a mcmanion and I don' t want my lot to be 1/8 of acre with a 3000 sf home on it! (one neighbor hood near us has so small a lot that their yard is the width of the vw bug they can park across the front of house!) More than one neighbor is single older lady whose husband has passed away, or is a house that the children have inherited after parents passed away. The street is our community and we want to keep it! (I' ve lived there for 13 years.) If more houses of this kind pop up in my area my solution will be to live in the cheapest apartment I can find, go ahead and buy my retirement home and have that be my primary residence - one less property tax payer for Georgia! But that solution really sucks because I have to work about 15 - 20 more years - but I won' t be able to afford to buy another house within a thirty mile range of the city! (Atlanta has the second worst commute time in the US, while I love my car I don' t want to live in it!) I' m at a loss as to what we can do to alter this situation - we pay tax dollars, yet getting politicians to make changes will be tedious and slow and everyone wants their rights protected. One person at the meeting summed up my feelings exactly - I don' t care where you live, but I care how you live (ie maintain your house cut your grass and don' t have washers and sofas in the front yard!) Are you in a town or city? Most have some occupancy rules limiting how many people can live in a single family house. You and your neighbors need to call the police for any excuse you can think of. Make this a problem for them too. If you smell smoke near this house, call the fire dept. Keep a watch out for any drug dealing. If you don' t get support from the cops and FD, call the TV stations and papers. They' d love to catch a drug deal on film. New shopper is right get the community involved. Taxis pulling in and out is a sign of illegal activity - call the police. Suspect the authentic of the people living in the house - call INS. Use any excuse call anyone you can think of. Make it everyone' s problem. Call the newspapers. Call the TV stations. You should try calling your local immigration services and ask them to check out this house. If they are illegals they should be deported and the company they work for should be fined for this kind of action. As newshopper stated, 10 people in a single residence maybe a code violation. See if you can get your neighbors on your street to call immigration services too and COMPLAIN about what is going on. You could possibly get a group of your neighbors together and sign a petition and send it to your elected local officials and let them know what is going on. Also the idea of a local newspaper doing a story on this situation would draw attention to your plight. Take action and do not give up. You are the one paying the taxes for this neighborhood, not the city. They do not have the right to tell you to let your property go. You pay for services provided by the city and expect them to keep on providing them, let them know you are proud of your neighborhood and will not let it be taken over by people who do not care about it. The next election, do not vote for the mayor of your town and let him/her know that since they obviously are not looking out for your best interest or that of the city. Just how much money they can make and put in their pockets. The more tax money they can receive, the more they can justify their own raises. How dare they. My hope for you is that you are able to take back your neighborhood, and you have a good and decent place to live and retire. You deserve that. The idea of municipal or local property maintenance codes is being tried around the country to prevent the encroaching blight and the resulting eminent domain takeovers that have been popular lately. I don' t know how much support that might garner in your area. They are very basic and usually only mandate that the obvious stuff be done. It may be worth your time to read some and see what they usually say. A lot of responsible investors and homeowners are getting fed up with the opportunistic stuff going on. You are not alone in your concerns. The suspicious activity in the nearby house can be checked into. Other posters have suggested good ideas. If you have a local building or housing inspector or even housing agency you can contact them to see if there is any action the community can take. Best of luck and let us know what happens if you can. Buying your retirement home now is a great idea. Don't wait till we Baby Boomers have snorked up all the good property cheaply - buy it now, even if you don't live there. (But why not live there too?) The taxis are probably coming and going because none of the illegals have cars. I know exactly what you're talking about. That's one reason I got the H*** out of Atlanta. However, remember that no one has a RIGHT to live in a neighborhood forever just because they live there now. That includes widows. I don't condone greed and I hate what the corrupt pols and greedy developers have done to the country, but I can't afford to live where I grew up either. I'm trying to move back to where I lived before and guess what, it's McMansions now too. Write to your councilperson and the mayor. Let them know you VOTE and it won't be for them if they don't stand up to these slumlords. If none of that other stuff works, you can always get out the white sheets. Thanks for all the comments. That was what the neighborhood meeting was for - to get everyone involved including police, fire, ins, local politicians. A candidate for the county commissioner's office attended our meeting. PS two of my neighbors are already flying the confederate flag. As for the INS and local code - guess what they work 9-5 and that is when they do their drive bys. Of course no activity is going on then! But yes we will start our own campaign to get this boarding house closed. Please let us know the outcome of the community effort. | |
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