LAKEPORT >> For approximately 18 months, the neighbors of 2260 Green St. in Lakeport have dealt with loud noise from fighting, odors from garbage piles and human feces, and alleged drug crime.
“It’s been a nightmare,” resident Sue Cissna said. “There’s garbage all over the side of the house. As far as I can tell, they were using the bathroom in the backyard.”
But despite multiple complaints to the city, it wasn’t until Aug. 25 that the Lakeport Police Department made arrests and staff posted a notice saying the residence was uninhabitable, making it illegal for people to live there.
“Everyone around here is thrilled that it has been red-tagged,” Cissna said. “But it took me 11 months to get to the right person.”
Her story is not an isolated incident. In fact, according to a report obtained from the city, the property is one of six code enforcement cases that have been open for at least a year. Two of them have reportedly been problems lasting nearly a decade.
Associate Planner Dan Chance attributed the delays to a number of factors: limited staff, failure to reach property owners, or simply noncompliant residents.
“We do what we can do,” he said, noting that it’s just he and Community Development Director Kevin Ingram handling code enforcement. “I’m doing this with [different] projects in the city.”
The strategy, he added, is to work with the property owner as much as possible and encourage them to fix the issue on their own.
However, in the case of the Green Street house and 767 Third St. property, contacting the owner has been difficult. According to Chance, the owner of the former is in prison while multiple communication attempts with the title-holder of the other — Fidelity National Tax Service — have failed.
This problem has created a Catch-22 for the city — it can do the cleanup itself with no guarantee of recouping its limited resources or leave it alone and infuriate residents even more.
“We can’t put a lien on a property nobody wants,” the planner said, speaking of the Third Street lot.
Regardless of the city’s reasons, residents like Ruth Shriber — who was lived next door to that house for more than a decade — have begun to lose hope. Many of the inoperable vehicles were moved around since a 30-day abatement notice was given in Late May, she claimed, but the rat infestation and the massive pile of debris remains a problem.
“Generally speaking, nothing has happened.” Shriber added. “It’s been there so long, I’m wondering if anything will get done … the problem has been an enormous detriment on my life.”
In addition to a possibly unreachable bank, both claim another issue lies with the son of Patrick Joyce — the former owner of the property who is now deceased. The son held a few yard sales, a number of sources say, but due to his allegedly estranged relationship with Joyce he doesn’t seem too interested in fully handling the estate.
According to Chance, uninterested trustees and or children have been a common experience during his tenure in dealing with problem properties. He called it “a big challenge.”
Another common circumstance is repeat offenders. The house at 801 Armstrong Street has had problem with accumulated junk since 2006. Chance claimed the owner has cleaned up the property only to have it be messy again. Still, the city encouraged them to clean it up and on March 15 it was reportedly cleaned up.
“We really go out of our way to work with the [owner],” he said. “You catch more flies with honey.”
Other long-time cases in the report were 140 Ruby Drive (large accumulation of junk since 2014), 1101 North High St. (people living in a trailer in front of the property without proper utility hookups) and 1205 Sixth St., unoccupied and unlivable due to its “dilapidated state”.
City officials are looking into doing the cleanup of human waste on the Green Street property, Chance added.
