Between two very well-kept homes near 19th Street and Hampton Avenue in Milwaukee sits a blighted house with peeling paint and gaping holes in the roof. It is an unwelcoming sight, except to some very undesirable tenants. “There’s a family of four or five raccoons,” next-door neighbor Pamela Mims said.Other neighbors have video showing the raccoons walking from the house and even one during the daytime when the nocturnal critters are usually asleep.”That particular property on the block is very unkempt. It’s an eyesore. And I can’t believe it’s gone this long,” Mims said.She would know. Mims and her family have lived next door since the 1960s, and the same woman has owned the property since the 1970s. Mims said it’s been vacant for years, unless you count the vermin.”She keeps the snow moved, keeps the grass mowed, keeps the leaves blowed. That’s it. No one lives there. They can’t. The roof’s falling in,” Mims said. On closer inspection, the house is in very poor repair. There are holes in the roof, peeling paint and shredded window shades. “It’s different than getting a cat or dog out of there,” neighbor Curtis Neal said. “You got to call somebody special to get the raccoons out of there, or get a squirrel out of there. They ain’t nothing to play with.”The city of Milwaukee has responded to several complaints about the property over the years, but the taxes have been paid up. Mims hopes the decline has reached a point where the city will step in. “It’d be nice if some of these developers would get it, rehab it and sell it,” she said.
Between two very well-kept homes near 19th Street and Hampton Avenue in Milwaukee sits a blighted house with peeling paint and gaping holes in the roof. It is an unwelcoming sight, except to some very undesirable tenants.
“There’s a family of four or five raccoons,” next-door neighbor Pamela Mims said.
Other neighbors have video showing the raccoons walking from the house and even one during the daytime when the nocturnal critters are usually asleep.
“That particular property on the block is very unkempt. It’s an eyesore. And I can’t believe it’s gone this long,” Mims said.
She would know. Mims and her family have lived next door since the 1960s, and the same woman has owned the property since the 1970s. Mims said it’s been vacant for years, unless you count the vermin.
“She keeps the snow moved, keeps the grass mowed, keeps the leaves blowed. That’s it. No one lives there. They can’t. The roof’s falling in,” Mims said.
On closer inspection, the house is in very poor repair. There are holes in the roof, peeling paint and shredded window shades.
“It’s different than getting a cat or dog out of there,” neighbor Curtis Neal said. “You got to call somebody special to get the raccoons out of there, or get a squirrel out of there. They ain’t nothing to play with.”
The city of Milwaukee has responded to several complaints about the property over the years, but the taxes have been paid up. Mims hopes the decline has reached a point where the city will step in.
“It’d be nice if some of these developers would get it, rehab it and sell it,” she said.