An abandoned property that sat vacant for years is getting cleaned up by the city of Dallas.
The home on Indianola Street was surrounded by piles of trash and old furniture when NBC 5 visited the property on January 29.
According to the city, it had been accumulating problems since the owner of it passed away four years ago. The issue was then compounded more recently by a squatter who moved his trailer onto the front yard.
“We were just waiting for the city to come back out here and they did, finally,” said resident Bobby Parker.
Parker lives across the street from the home. Over the last two weeks, he’s noticed significant improvements to the land. City crews cleared out all the items from the home and lawn in early February. The city was also able to obtain an eviction notice for the man who had been staying there.
“It looks like a mess right now,” Parker said. “But it looks a lot better now than it did when he was there.”
NBC 5 learned the man evicted has only moved a couple streets away, where he has parked his trailer on family-owned land.
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As for the property he vacated, Parker has a lot of questions for the city as to what comes next.
“If it can be fixed, let somebody fix it and rent it out to somebody else,” he said. “If not, I don't want to see it standing there and rot.”
The home is one of many that the city is attempting to either salvage or demolish as part of an effort to better address the issue.
A Blight Task Force was recently formed, and the city hopes the group can identify properties with issues more quickly in the future.
As for the home on Indianola, the likely course of action will be to demolish the structure, according to the Dallas City Attorney’s Office.
The probate administrator in charge of the property will have to file an order with the court to request the demolition, after which the land can be sold.
