Residents complain of abandoned house in South Salinas

A well-known run-down home in South Salinas is getting some renewed attention from neighbors after the city passed a new blight ordinance earlier this year, which puts more pressure on owners to maintain their properties.

Carol Harner has been living right next to the abandoned, dilapidated house on the corner of West Alisal and Lorimer Streets for the last 10 years.

In those years, she has seen everything from raccoons and rodents to the homeless and criminals breaking in to camp out.

“There’s been prostitution rings next door to me, I’ve had a gunshot within ten feet of my son’s bedroom, I was able to look inside once when the police came and I saw black mold,” said Harner.

Other neighbors say there are flammables in the garage and elsewhere, and they are concerned about safety.

“If this were to catch on fire, not only would my house catch on fire, but Carol’s and Larry on the other side,” said Chris Gannon, a Salinas resident.

A group of residents went so far as to board up the windows with their own money to keep people out. Now, those residents may get some help from the City of Salinas.

The city council passed the Vacancy Accountability Ordinance in March, which opens up stiffer penalties against careless property owners with abandoned buildings.

“It’s time that the community demanded that this property owner start taking care of such buildings,” said Kevin Dayton, the government affairs director at the Salinas City Center Improvement Association.

According to the Monterey County online parcels database, the property owner of the Salinas house has a mailing address in Gilroy on a property said to be valued at at least $2 million.

KION tried speaking with anyone living in the house at the address the county website provided, but no one answered the door.

Harner tells KION she called the property owner’s husband before, and he told her he cannot do anything about the house because it is under his wife’s trust fund.

“This property is a perfect example of blight. There are broken windows, peeling paint, obvious neglect of the property, weeds,” said Dayton.

Residents just hope the city can do something about it now.

“They need to take care of it. This blighted situation needs to be taken care of,” said Gannon.

If you know of blighted properties in your neighborhood, you are encouraged to file a complaint with the City of Salinas. Dayton says it is the first step to getting something done.