Squatters trash KC neighborhood, residents want city's help

now to an i-team exclusive squatters taking over homes trashing the kansas city neighborhood right now it really don't matter who who it belongs to because there's a crime going on you guys go to crime scenes this is a crime scene come on it's an ongoing problem that's been happening for years despite multiple complaints to the city people who live in this neighborhood said they couldn't get anyone to help that is until i-team reporter jessica mcmaster got involved you can't get yourself in the window sir well i'll get tougher your face will love me too but okay yeah you're well personal you're welcome you're welcome come on it's just another day for pat clark he's the president of the oak park neighborhood association so now we do know it came from him that this is a landfill no it's not a landfill it might as well be because that's what you're seeing in landfill squatters taking over homes and look now they want to run you know it's eight 19 11 11 people in there nobody who's staying here owns these houses no they're squatters look you call them what you want to but but by law that's what they call squatters trash spilling over from the backyard to the porch and onto the front lawn at this home on south benton avenue on the city's east side look i guess they would call this stuff collector's items you know because it's out in the yard barbara johnson lives next door she's the one who reached out to the i-team for help saying her complaints to the city over the years haven't led to a resolution this is what i live with and i've been living with this since 2018. those are flies you see on your tv screen they swarm the area a one time professor at umkc johnson has lived at this home for 56 years in the past the city received eight complaints over the trash at this home johnson says she doesn't understand why it's allowed to continue they would never permit it if we were award parkway or even homes that this would never happen if it were anything but this community but this is rampant here now no it doesn't happen on the other side of truth you know the problem according to clark enforcement but it all stems from a much more complex issue we have a homeless problem and everybody knows it but you know when you're homeless and have nowhere to go when that bridge gets too cold that water gets too deep this is where you end up the i-team watched several people leave from the property next door to johnson we also found squatters living in the house a couple doors down clark and johnson want the city to step up help me help myself you know come out and help me we looked into the property here and found it's owned by an out of town llc which can create problems for the city when it comes to enforcement we also contacted the city and watched what happened just four days after we let them know what's going on police the city codes codes and enforcement showed up along with kansas city police i just need you to go ahead and grab anything that you have that is of importance and then just go ahead and leave the property and not return they kicked the squatters out and told the manager of the property to clean up then board up the home but the city doesn't always have the power to do this says kcpd officer greg smith we have to have consent to be on the property from the from the owner or the property manager or we have to have a search warrant or some type of emergency circumstances officer smith says this part of town is particularly vulnerable to squatting there's just more vacant houses over here particularly over here in east patrol so you know the home is going to gravitate to where the vacant houses are because you know apparently when the house is occupied you know they won't be in them coats and enforcement supervisor tamara mills says the only reason the city is able to tell the squatters to leave is because there are no working utilities on the property usually she says her hands are tied it's extremely irritating because this this is the norm it seems like is becoming you know every day and this especially in this particular area who owns the property also creates issues when it comes to enforcement according to city spokesperson john bakala this particular property is owned by an out of town llc they are the bane of the city's existence records show the llc for this home is located in illinois llc's are supposed to leave a local contact for the city to get in touch with but mcauliffe says more often than not that doesn't happen according to city records more than 14 thousand homes across kansas city are owned by out of town llcs and we have out of town llc's in the other 49 states and about a dozen foreign countries so when they don't leave us a local contact person things escalate in this case there is a local contact which allowed the city to move forward we spoke with the manager of the property his first name is paul he wouldn't give us his last name the company that owns this have they been aware of this situation for how long we did an eviction on them this year like a couple of months ago paul wouldn't acknowledge the issue's been going on for years but he does have a message for the squatters stay out because we're after you paul tells us the house will be cleaned up and boarded within two days johnson who looked out on her front porch as the squatters were told to leave says she's waited years for this moment but that she's disappointed it took the news getting involved to get a resolution i appreciate it so much because now that you guys have shown up oh thank you mill assures johnson the city will keep an eye on things next door from here forward you have my word i will make sure that all of this mess is gone thanks for the prayer how do you hear about that what she just said right there i love it i love it this is better this is a whole new a whole new beginning when alan came uh friday i was saying oh okay so preservation might mean us too you know in this neighborhood the trash has mostly been cleared out from the property and if you look over here by the windows those are boarded up when the city came out earlier they did bring with them a social worker to help connect the squatters with housing in kcmo i'm jessica mcmaster 41 action news

Channel: KSHB 41

Views: 705,742

Keywords: kcmo, kansas city, neighborhood, oak park neighborhood association

Id: g51xkFYJ_Rw

Length: 6min 16sec (376 seconds)

Published: Mon Sep 28 2020