SAN ANTONIO – Temple Missionary Baptist Church Youth Director Rhonda Lampkin is reluctant to use the church’s backyard for Easter egg hunts following the ongoing issues with squatters in a nuisance property next door.
It’s an ongoing problem that’s taken over a month to resolve and has only spread, she explained.
Calls to the city and county about a nuisance property where squatters are living have been slow to get a solution.
On March 21st, the DART team attempted to vacate the people living in the house.
“It stopped for a day or two. And now we have new neighbors. Some of the other residents from that house are still there and setting up camp. There’s more activity going on than it was before,” Lampkin said. “They’ve been jumping the fence, going across to the house directly behind the church.”
Precinct 4 County Commissioner Tommy Calvert said he’s working to create a stronger assessment of the county as to which properties they hold in trust and a better plan on how to deal with complaints quickly.
“There aren’t a whole lot of these properties, but if the city is telling me that they have 10 problem properties a year,” his goal is to find a policy to deal with them in the next few months.
One possible solution is evaluating a county policy that could allow the counties to hand over properties to nonprofits to be used for things like creating affordable housing.