DETROIT – Two vacant homes on Beverly Court in Detroit are raising serious safety concerns among residents, who say the deteriorating structures pose a growing threat to the neighborhood, and fear the city isn’t listening.
The homes, both abandoned, have smashed windows and crumbling brick facades.
Neighbors say they won’t go near the properties and are calling on the city to act before someone gets hurt.
Anita Moncrease has lived on the block for decades. She says watching her neighborhood fall apart has been painful.
“There’s no justification for this house to be sitting here. None,” Moncrease said.
She pointed to a pile of bricks left behind after a recent windstorm toppled part of one of the structures.
“We have kids on this street. This house is blowing down slowly. You can see the pile of bricks over there from the last windstorm that came in. It just blew that entire column down,” Moncrease said.
The two vacant homes sit side by side, and Moncrease says both are in dire condition.
“I think both of these are going to fall. I don’t think there’s any hope left now,” Moncrease said.
Moncrease says she has contacted the city and alerted her neighborhood block association.
While people have come out to assess the properties and agreed the homes are in rough shape, she says no meaningful action has followed.
“We think we have a stake in this city coming back too and having things like this and not responding. I think the city is turning its back on us,” Moncrease said.
Local 4 reached out to Detroit’s Construction and Demolition Department for comment, but city offices were closed for Good Friday, and no one was available.
A spokesperson said the department will look into the matter on Monday (April 6).
Moncrease says the lack of urgency is frustrating.
“We’re like chicken little yelling ‘the sky is falling, the sky is falling’, but no one is listening,” Moncrease said.
Local 4 will follow up with the city next week.