AUSTIN, Texas — Some southeast Austin residents are fed up with the crime, traffic and late-night noise coming from a vacant home taken over by people experiencing homelessness.
One neighbor, who didn't want to reveal his identity, said the crime on Bitter Creek Drive has increased over the last two years.
"We've had shootings stemming out of there," the neighbor said. "We've had the place catch on fire, and we have people coming in and out all kinds of times."
Thayer Smith with the Austin Fire Department (AFD) said firefighters have responded to that location six times over the past six months, mostly for trash fires. The Austin Police Department (APD) said its officers have been there 11 times since March 1.
"We are having an uptick in issues related to what we believe are homeless individuals living in vacant structures," Smith said.
AFD, the Development Services Department's code compliance (DSD) and The Homeless Strategy Office have teamed up to get people experiencing homelessness out of vacant homes in Austin.
The departments say it's a safety hazard to first responders, the unhoused individuals and people living in the area. Smith said this particular home has been on AFD's radar for a while, and that the department's goal is to get the unhoused people out of vacant properties and into a comfortable place.
"It's a place where there's no utilities, there's no water, there's no nothing," the neighbor said. "And you have people there all times of night with flashlights going through the property."
The Development Services Department's code compliance team said that since June of 2023, an active code violation case has been open on this property:
"The violations cited are for the accumulation of junk, rubbish, home appliances, tires and other debris. Code representatives have attempted to speak with the property owner but have been unsuccessful. Legal action for unsanitary conditions and a contractor's yard has been taken. Code has also attempted to work with a tenant engaged in metal scrapping at the property. There has recently been some progress made to clean up the property."
APD said the code compliance team has reason to believe the property owner is still alive.
"Nobody can find him, nobody," the neighbor said.
DSD said because the property owner can't be reached, the city can't go inside the mobile home, but officials are in the process of filing an administrative search warrant to clean outside the house.
It's something the neighbor said the city has promised multiple times.
"That's not going to fix the problem," the neighbor said. "All it's going to do is clean it, and then they're going to go right back to the same thing again."
The city expects to start the clean-up next month.
Regarding getting people out of the home, DSD wrote in a statement: "DSD Code Compliance does not engage in removal of individuals from a property unless directed by the Building and Standards Commission. Outside of that, property owners must pursue eviction, which is a civil process."