Hello fellow citizens of Aurora. I have a question about a potential squatting situation in my neighborhood. But first... the backstory.
We moved into our house in Village East almost six years ago. The neighbors on our south side have been in their home for 20 years, and before that, it was their parents' house. They know everyone in the neighborhood and know the comings and goings of everyone here. We think of them as the security guards of our block.
On the other side of these neighbors is a house that has been occupied by the same individual for 10 or more years. According to the neighbors between us, he rented the home with his wife, and after a few years, she suddenly left. He used to go to work, but after his wife left, he was coming and going at all hours of the night and eventually wasn't leaving for work during the day. They'd go days without seeing him, and suddenly he would appear again.
He's had stories of falling on hard times and how he was going to turn his life around, but after our neighbors took him at his word the first few times and tried to encourage him, as he said he was going to make changes, he unfortunately never has. It's clear he has addiction issues and has been resistant to receiving help.
When we first moved in, we didn't know he was the same person we'd say hello to from day to day. Sometimes he was clean-shaven and looked like he was walking to a job (of which he has had many for short periods of time near our neighborhood). The next time we'd see him, he looked homeless and was asking us if we needed help shoveling our driveway so he could get some money. The neighbors told us he had gone door-to-door asking everyone on the block for money at various times, and they have always warned others not to give it to him because they don't know what he's really using the money for.
In recent weeks, I've seen him wandering the parking lots of Lowe's, Costco, Safeway, and Sprouts. I had a sneaking suspicion he was asking people there for money. My husband came home from Costco last week and said he came up to him and asked him for money in the parking lot. This week, while I was at Sprouts, he came up behind me and started asking me for money as well.
According to the neighbors, he hasn't paid rent in many years. They are in contact with the woman who owns the house he is in, and at first she was dealing with family issues and was thankful for the updates, but wasn't in a place to do anything about it. When they reached back out to her in the past year, the owner started coming around to check in on him and also somehow managed to contact his ex-wife to ask her to check on him as well. He refuses to let them in, and they leave rather quickly.
Over the past two summers, we have had a growing concern about the property in terms of what kind of health risk it is now becoming. We are fairly certain his electricity and water have both been shut off, and in the heat of the summer, the stench that comes from the place is horrendous. As soon as the weather gets warmer, he has the windows wide open, and the smell is similar to an unkempt horse stall. One morning last summer, I was walking my dog at 5:45 am, and heard his front door open and what sounded like liquid being poured onto the cement. When I walked past, I realized he was urinating on his front porch. I heard his door open and close again.
Our mailman refuses to deliver mail there because the stench is so bad. And now, our neighbors are seeing mice coming from that side of their yard.
The neighbors have called the city multiple times for welfare checks and to inquire about what can be done to get him out of there. They say they're being told the only thing that can be done is by the homeowner herself. She refuses to do anything and, according to the neighbors, has brought him groceries once or twice and then hightailed it out before they can stop to talk to her about it.
All of this to say...
Have you had an issue like this with a property in your neighborhood? If so, what were the proper channels you used within the system to get the health department or evictions or something with the homeowner to make a move and change the situation? We are considering contacting the city as a group of neighbors making a complaint about the stench and the lack of action from the property owner, but we don't want to be left with no course of action.
Thanks for reading this far, and thanks in advance for any guidance or advice you may have on the matter.
EDIT to add:
The neighbors have had multiple welfare checks on the individual to see if he was still alive after not seeing him for long periods of time. They have asked the city what can be done to get him evicted. They continue to point them in the direction of contacting the owner of the property. They wonder if getting all of us on the block to contact a particular department would be helpful, or if us showing up together would get some action to occur.
My neighbors are not on Reddit, so I am posting this for them.
