SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A collapsing ceiling, dry rot, water damage and much more—inspectors with Sacramento's building and code enforcement recently described one home in the Pocket area of Sacramento as an "attractive nuisance and blight."
Neighbors told ABC10 that they grew restless over the past year because of the deteriorating home, and an allegedly combative relationship between them and the home occupant.
Such activity had been escalating since October of 2021, said decades-long Detroit Neighborhood resident Margarita Chavez.
The tenant residing in the dilapidated house on Detroit Boulevard lived there with his late parents, said Chavez, and had been renting the property from the new homeowners since his parents passed away.
Being one of the Detroit Neighborhood Association leaders, she said the situation was enough for her to start a campaign aimed at getting the tenant out of the house.
"I'm the one who came up with the plan to condemn the house," Chavez told ABC10. "From the outside of the house, you can see the there was hardly any roof anymore."
Detroit Neighborhood
Kai Boone said she moved into the Detroit neighborhood in 2010 to a house initially surrounded by vacant homes.
Almost 13 years later, she said her neighborhood grew drastically from just a few home owners.
Trash blocking the sidewalk and people getting rowdy was not out of the ordinary, Boone said, but the trouble was little compared to the house Chavez told her she was trying to get condemned.
"I like where I live, and I want it to look nice," Boone said. "And I want, when I invite someone over, for them to want to come to my house."
The Detroit neighborhood is in South Sacramento, with Detroit Boulevard running north to south.
'Dangerous building'
After Chavez helped the homeowners of the dilapidated house on Detroit Boulevard open a complaint with code enforcement on Jan. 21, inspectors began recording numerous housing violations.
According to records from Sacramento code enforcement officers, among the violations include:
- Electrical and fire hazard to life, health or property
- Fallen interior ceiling because of water damage
- Deteriorating flooring and floor supports
- Interior wall, ceiling and door damage and rotting
Sacramento's Community Development Department confirmed to ABC10 that the tenant was eventually removed by Sacramento police after the home inspections.
"The owner now has a current permit to correct the violations," a department spokesperson told ABC10.
Pictures Chavez shared of the interior of the house show an exposed and rotting ceiling, collapsing walls and piles of junk.
Getting residents she sees as problematic is one of Chavez' specialties, Boone said, because she wants her neigbors to feel safe.
But what constitutes a problematic neighbor can be subjective.
While Boone said her new neighbors can get disruptive in her backyard, she's held off on her initial desire to petition against them.
"That's what I was gonna do, I was going to ask the associations, 'Let's get rid of this group home'. But then I said to myself 'No, they have to live somewhere'. It could be worse," she said.
Tenant rights
Homeownership is becoming less attainable in Sacramento, as a recent Redfin report found home prices in the area soared 44% during the pandemic.
And the steep increase in accessory dwelling units attached to single-family homes means more renters have the opportunity to live in neighborhoods among homeowners rather than apartments among other renters.
According to Pew Research Center, 2019 U.S. Census data showed 58% of Black households rented, as well as 52% of Hispanic and Latino households.
It is these households, said Marcos Segura of the National Housing Law Project, that have historically become the target of nuisance ordinances.
Similar to aspects of code enforcement, nuisance ordinances were created with the intent to keep the neighborhood safe from disruptive residents.
But Segura told ABC10 they can be used easily by landlords to evict tenants.
However, he said even if a tenant become targeted by a landlord, code enforcement or neighborhood residents, they still have the right to defend themselves in many ways.
"Don't be intimidated, just because it's a government agency that goes out there doesn't mean that what they're doing is is necessarily legal or proper," Segura told ABC10. "Once you start, as a resident, noticing stuff like that, reach out to your local legal aid office or some other legal advocate about what's happening."
For more information on tenant protections in Sacramento, visit the city's community development website.
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