Broken toilets, broken tricycles, a lot of broken junk — it’s not what anyone wants next door to their home.
Trudy Williams has lived in her Slavic Village home on Hosmer Avenue for the last 17 years. She keeps up her house and her yard, as do most of the residents on the street.
But right next door is an abandoned building surrounded by the type of trash you should only see in a landfill.
“One day I might find a dead body over there,” Williams said.
The EPA even came out earlier this year because some of the waste was toxic. But as soon as anything gets cleaned up, illegal dumping in the middle of the night brings the messes back.
“Someone is breaking glass and throwing it over my fence. My dogs come in with bloody paws cause they stepped on the glass,” she added.
It’s an eyesore on a street and in a neighborhood that is trying so hard to revitalize itself — vacant homes are being demolished and new construction is going up.
Nia Tomlin moved in just a few months back because she thought it was a nice place to live.
“It’s very quiet, nice,” Tomlin said. That is until you get to the vacant buildings.
“It feels like we’re living in filth pretty much," Tomlin said.
Councilman Anthony Brancatelli said the building on Hosmer has been a problem property for years.
According to court records, it went into tax foreclosure in February. The bank with the mortgage on it has apparently abandoned its interest in the property, which means that if the taxes are not paid within the next couple of months, the property will likely end up with the Cuyahoga Land Bank.
The good news is the tax foreclosure case should conclude within a couple of months. When that happens, the Cuyahoga Land Bank will acquire the property and it will likely be demolished, according to Gus Frangos, president of the Cuyahoga Land Bank.
In the meantime, the city of Cleveland said the property is on their clean up list, but can’t say exactly when that clean up will happen.
