The city of Dallas has formed a Blight Task Force in an effort to clean up abandoned properties.
For years, the city has been trying to address the issue, as taxpayers foot the bill to maintain the spaces.
"We want to get rid of situations like this. We want to keep situations like this from happening," said assistant Dallas city attorney LaShonne Watts.
Often, after the owner of a property dies, the city cannot track down a living heir interested in maintaining the space. As a result, it falls into disrepair. Under the charge of the city manager's office, the task force will create a city-wide database to track these properties and determine in what order they should be addressed.
"It's so important for us to find out where these blighted houses are, where these vacant structures are," explained Watts. "So, we can try to move on them as quickly as possible."
Recently, they moved in on an abandoned home on Indianola Street.
The owner passed away four years ago. Because of back taxes on the land, the city was unable to find an heir interested in taking over the property. It sat vacant until about two years ago when a squatter settled into the house and moved his trailer in front of it.
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"It makes the whole street very bad. It's very noticeable," said neighbor Jasmine Bueno.
In this case, the city has made progress. Recently, the city attorney's office was able to file for control of the estate and hand the property over to a probate administrator. Now, the man living there is facing an eviction order.
But elsewhere in Dallas County, some believe the problem is growing.
"That problem just gets exacerbated year after year after year," said Kristen Schulz, with Dallas Area Habitat For Humanity.
As director of public policy for the organization, Schulz said her office has identified nearly 10,000 abandoned properties within Dallas County. Depending on their state, she argues the properties likely end up costing taxpayers more to preserve then they would to probate in court. One abandoned lot in Joppa has received lawn maintenance from the city for more than a decade, according to Schulz.
"The city of Dallas and the taxpayers of Dallas will end up maintaining this property indefinitely," said Schulz. "It has cost thousands of dollars."
But the city hopes that cost could be reduced with the help of their task force and heightened focus on the issue. Anyone who notices blight in their neighborhood is asked to contact the city for assistance.
"If we can collectively pull our data together and say, 'Hey, we've located these blighted properties. We know these vacant properties exist,'" Watts said, "we can put this all in a database, so we can figure out, 'OK, what is the best strategy to deal with these properties?'"
