ATLANTA, Ga. — Pam Johnson is tired of looking at the two vacant homes next door to her Dill Avenue house. The grass is overgrown at both homes and she told WSB-TV's Richard Elliot that vagrants come in and out. She said the vacant southwest Atlanta houses are havens for drug users.
"I've caught several people coming in and out," she told Elliot. "And it kind of scares me because I've got kids."
Johnson's frustrations mirrored those of a lot of city residents who see vacant and dilapidated old homes or graffiti covered walls in almost every neighborhood. The recession only made the problems worse, as more owners walked away from homes leaving them vacant.
Changes At Code Enforcement Department May Bring Relief
"This is also the genesis or a lot of the public safety issues that we have here in Atlanta," said city council member Michael Julian Bond. "These vacant and dilapidated homes are just fuel for crime."
For years, the city said it didn't have enough code enforcement officers to handle the problem that was quickly becoming a crisis in many in-town neighborhoods.
WSB-TV learned Mayor Kasim Reed's office wants to overhaul the entire code enforcement department to make it more efficient and provide more answers to citizens.
"Code enforcement has been a significant challenge to the city of Atlanta," said deputy chief operating officer Duriya Farooqui.
Farooqui is heading up the effort to overhaul code enforcement. She said the plan is to eliminate an entire layer of management along with adding more staff researchers who can identify absentee owners and hold them accountable. She also told Elliot she wants to change the way code enforcement inspectors are deployed with less officers in court full-time and more actually out on the streets.
"We want to partner with citizens to hear what they're saying," said Farooqui. "And to make sure that we respond to their complaints in a timely, appropriate and effective manner."
But Farooqui conceded the city cannot take care of every problem. Strict state property rights laws prevent officers from going onto some properties to clean them up. She wants to lobby state lawmakers next year to pass new laws making it easier for cities to go after these vacant properties.
Pam Johnson just wants someone to do something about her neighbors. She's tired of mowing the yards herself when it's not her responsibility.
"It's a headache," she laughed. "I'm 45 years old, but I come out here and look at, that and I feel like I'm 90."
WSBTV
