[StBernard] Slidell to start process to condemn houses

[Westley Annis]

Slidell starts process to condemn abandoned properties By Christine Harvey
St. Tammany bureau

Terri and Terry Caye stood in the front yard of their home on Oak Lane in
Slidell and watched as their grandson played with the family dog, chasing
the animal with a garden hose and, every so often, hitting his mark. The
scene is almost Rockwellian, save for the rotting, abandoned houses to their
immediate left and right. 

The couple spent the week or so after Hurricane Katrina gutting the bottom
floor of their house, a task that comes naturally to most residents of the
Palm Lake subdivision, which is prone to flooding after the slightest of
storms. The two sets of neighbors in closest proximity to the Cayes,
however, did not follow a similar path. 

The elderly woman who owns the house at 3113 Oak Lane no longer lives in the
city, and her most recent tenant moved shortly before the storm, Terry Caye
said. Her daughters have visited the red brick house in the interim, he
said, but haven't made an effort to remove the moldy Sheetrock or the mud
still caked on the living room floor. 

A couple bought the house across from the Cayes on Bonfouca Drive about a
month before the storm and returned at least once to survey the damage,
Terry Caye said. While the couple moved some of the water-logged furniture
into the back yard, the majority of the home's contents remain where the
floodwaters deposited them. 

Such scenes are not unusual in Slidell. 

The city's Department of Building Safety has compiled a list of
approximately 150 properties, primarily homes, that are in some form of
abandonment. Officials are in the process of identifying the properties that
have fallen into the greatest decay, with the worst of the worst appearing
virtually untouched in the nine months since the storm. 
"I have literally had teams out walking the city to get these counts," said
Mayor Ben Morris, noting that the number of worst offenders thus far totals
39. "Nothing has been done. It's like (the owners) vanished. I'm getting
ready to drop the hammer." 

Morris has directed his staff to start condemnation proceedings against the
owners of the properties in the worst condition, which include the two
adjacent to the Cayes. City Attorney Tim Mathison has identified the owners
and any other interested parties through land records at the St. Tammany
Parish Clerk of Court's office and sent certified letters to inform them of
the city's intentions. 

In the meantime, officials are revisiting each of the properties on the list
to determine whether any others merit condemnation, as well as whether any
businesses meet the criteria. 

Officials are concerned that these properties pose significant health and
safety hazards, particularly with more families returning to south Slidell
in recent months, a trend evidenced by the increasing number of FEMA
trailers in any given neighborhood. City workers have marked homes that fall
into this category with a red sticker. 

Mathison said he plans to argue his case against the property owners before
the City Council sometime in June, with the owners offered the opportunity
to present testimony as to why their homes should not be condemned. In cases
where officials cannot locate the interested parties, the city will hire an
attorney to represent them. 

After hearing the evidence, the council either will order the owners to tear
down the properties or give them a certain number of days to make repairs,
Mathison said. He added that officials are hoping FEMA will pay for the Army
Corps of Engineers to demolish the homes at no cost to the homeowners. 

Anyone who disagrees with the council's decision may appeal the ruling to
the 22nd Judicial District Court in Covington, Mathison said. 

In some of the worst cases, doors are wide open and windows shattered,
allowing easy access inside mold-infested homes. Trees have fallen through
the roofs of others, sending splintered ceiling beams downward into kitchens
and bedrooms, now littered with insulation and pine cones, in addition to
upturned furniture and shattered china. 

An open front door at a green cinderblock home on Lincoln Avenue reveals a
moldy mess, including untouched Sheetrock and carpeting, and furniture
upended by the floodwaters. While it's obvious the home's residents
abandoned it long ago, someone apparently lived there for a time after the
storm, judging by the empty MRE bags and a nearly full case of bottled water
among the scattered debris just inside the front door. 

In some parts of the city, residents are treated to blocks containing
multiple abandoned homes. Four houses in the 2300 block of 8th Street
haven't been touched since the storm, though it appears by the absence of
any furniture that three of the homes had been unoccupied for some time
prior. 

Three decaying homes in a row occupy the 3400 block of Front Street. While
the white stucco house on the corner of Front and North streets has a
relatively neat exterior, an open back door reveals a stinking kitchen
replete with an open refrigerator tilted face-forward toward the floor. 

The smell of gardenias in bloom can't quite mask the odor emanating from two
homes in the 200 block of Sun Valley Drive, where water lines mark the walls
and holes in the roof caused by fallen trees serve as makeshift skylights. 

In addition to the usual health and safety hazards that abandoned properties
may pose, some residents worry harm could come in different ways. 

A woman who lives next door to an abandoned house on Pinetree Street said
the open front door is an invitation for squatters who roam the
neighborhood, looking for a place to spend the night. She said she's worried
for her safety and avoids leaving her FEMA trailer out of fear that someone
might break inside while she's away. 

And while the idea of living next door to an abandoned house doesn't thrill
Olive Street resident Dominic Ricca, he's most concerned that one of his
neighbor's leaning pine trees could fall onto his roof. A dead tree caught
the pine as the storm passed, but Ricca said the tree could snap at any
time, hindering his family's efforts to repair and sell their own
flood-damaged home. 

The vast majority of the properties on the condemnation list are homes, but
at least one served the neighboring community as a church. 

A healthy layer of dust covers the wooden pews at the House of Prayer on
Fremaux Avenue, where moldy Sheetrock and ruined red carpet remain in place.
Several of the church's windows are broken, and the steeple that crowns the
single-story building now tilts to the left. 

Though officials are focusing most of their attention on properties
abandoned in Katrina's wake, they are taking the opportunity to eliminate
some of the blight present in the city before the storm. 

Mary Savoye lives on Reine Avenue next door to a home that officials
declared unsafe for human occupancy almost two years ago. She said her
former neighbor had mental problems, which caused him to light small fires
in the house and defecate on the floor. 


Officials covered the home's door and windows with plywood at the time but
didn't clean it or remove its contents, leaving Savoye to wonder what kinds
of health hazards the house must pose post-Katrina. 

"I think they need to come out and quarantine it . . . before that stuff
gets in the air," she said. "I don't want to end up sick."

(Christine Harvey can be reached at charvey at timespicayune.com or (985)
645-2853.)