Neighborhood Nuisance: House engulfed in trees on Stickney Ave in Toledo

TOLEDO, Ohio (WTVG) - On Stickney Avenue sits a home that cannot be viewed from the street.

The property is engulfed by trees, and neighbors are uncomfortable with the landscape imposing on the home’s visibility.

" When I sit out back on my deck, I see animals on the top of the roof where it has a hole in it. And it’s different rodents running around the backyard and even across my front yard from hanging out in this empty house, where it’s wooded, and there are a lot of trees in a lot of uncut bushes over there,” said a neighbor who chose to remain anonymous.

The woman said she often spots squatters rummaging through the vacant house.

”It alarms me because I’ve been in my house with my windows open, and I can hear them over there. I have called the police, and I got a number, an comment ID number for the city. I’ve been calling about the same house for years. And it is tagged to be torn down,” she said. The neighbor further added that she was told the house would be torn down by March 2022, yet it still stands.

The City’s demolition department said they are still waiting for funds from the State to finish the long list of demos in Toledo.

Urban Beautification Director Dennis Kennedy said due to the 2008 financial crisis, the city has become the custodian of hundreds of abandoned properties.

” We’ve grown exponentially over the last year. We went from 40,000,000 ft.² to 63,000,000 ft.² of grass that Weibo, and if we were to qualify every blade of grass in the city of Toledo, we maintain like 58% of that. So over half of the entire city’s grass, the city mows and maintains in some way. There’s always going to be a property that falls through the cracks,” said Kennedy.

If you have a troubled property in your community that has become a neighborhood nuisance, send an email to willie.daniely@13abc.com.

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