MEMPHIS, Tenn. — On a street where everyone took good care of their yards, there was one that stood out.
“It’s really terrible to have to get up and look at something like that,” Trenton Hood said.
There was furniture, clothes, debris, high grass and weeds.
Neighbors said the front yard on Hillis Street in Frayser had looked a mess for a while.
“The thing about it, it runs down your property and it’s just a bad scene on the neighborhood,” Hood explained.
Hood said the property is being treated like a dump site.
“A pickup came in and the guy was sitting there throwing a bunch of stuff in a ditch and then he left,” Hood described. “It wasn’t long until another pickup came in with a trailer, and he unloaded there.”
Hood said he saw it happen about five or six times and claimed a truck unloaded some items earlier this week.
WREG tried asking people inside the home about the trash, but they made it very clear they were not willing to answer questions.
The city said the house is on its radar, and several complaints have rolled into it’s 311 centers.
“Well, I’d like to see it cleaned up and helped that way,” Hood said.
The city told WREG a service request was put in on Wednesday to get the mess cleaned up.
The City of Memphis Public Works Division issued the following statement after WREG’s inquiry into the property complaints:
City of Memphis Code Enforcement on the 28th of May 2015 issued a code violation notice to the property owner of 3090 Hillis Street citing yard debris. On June 5, 2015, a City of Memphis compliance specialist while canvassing the area issued a 311 Call Center service request for the property located at 3104 Hillis Street to mitigate overgrown grass. After (8) official business day the City will cut the overgrown grass and bill the property owner for reimbursement of services.
Any and all property complaints are addressed by giving notice to the homeowner with a specified time to correct. If the homeowner does not correct within the time specified, code enforcement uses its course of action which is to cite the owner to court. The City of Memphis implemented a zero tolerance strategy resulting in increased court summons issued for violators who refuse to bring their properties into compliance within a timely manner. Please let me know if you need any further assistance.