MUNCIE, Ind. – An abandoned Muncie home we first told you about in May is still standing, despite promises by the city to have it torn down by now.
The house – located in the 2200 block of Dartmouth Avenue – clearly needs to go, according to neighbors who say it’s a health hazard.
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The city told RTV6 back in May the house would be torn down by early August, but that’s not the case.
“I’m really afraid somebody is going to get hurt in that house,” neighbor Debbie Taylor said. “They told us it would be down by August, and last month, they said it would be down.”
Taylor says it’s the same story every time she calls the city.
“It’s frustrating,” she said. “I just feel like they don’t care.”
Back in May, Muncie said there were 2,500 abandoned homes across the city, and they have to prioritize the most hazardous properties first.
The home on Dartmouth wasn’t considered dangerous enough to be demolished immediately, but officials did say it would be taken down by August.
Wednesday when we asked Muncie city leaders about it, they said there is no timeline for when the eyesore will be demolished.
Meanwhile, 19 other properties in the city were given the green light to be torn down this week.
“It’s still going to happen,” Muncie Community Development Director Terry Whitt Bailey said. “We have to put it on the back-burner for the moment.”
Bailey says that building’s demolition has to be approved by the unsafe building hearing authority, and that should happen in a couple of weeks.
But the Taylor family says that’s exactly what the city has been telling them for over a year now.
In Muncie’s defense, it says it has only so much money, and there are a lot of abandoned homes to tear down.
We’ll be sure to follow up on the hearing that’s supposed to happen in a couple weeks and will let you know what happens.
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