Many Chester SC homes are dangerous eyesores. Fixing things will take county action
Donell Hall has lived for 30 years in the Eureka Mill Village section of Chester, S.C.
He remembers a beautiful area where neighbors shared deep camaraderie. They sat on their porches each night in a time when there were no air conditioners. You could walk the street and have a conversation with anyone, he says.
Now, many of the houses there are falling apart. On one street, there are three abandoned homes in a row. One home has no door. Peak inside and you see piles of soda cans.
On another street, the house on a corner lot has broken windows and overgrown weeds. No one is sure if anyone lives there. The scene diminishes the look of neighbor’s homes.
“This neighborhood just got messed up,” he said.
Hall says he couldn’t move if he wanted -- the value of his property has gotten too low.
Patches of dilapidated houses persist in Chester because the city has no building code enforcement officer. Chester has not had a code enforcement officer since late last year, and now the position is frozen.
Hall said several of his neighbors have lawns that are overgrown and porches that are falling apart. There’s no sign of improvements, he says.
He also said he understands why.
The abandoned homes falling apart around them make people wonder why they should maintain their own property, he said.
Chester County Sheriff Max Dorsey said he has assigned officers to areas like the Gale Community, Eureka Mill Village and Pickney Road to foster better relationships. He said the problem people talk about most is dilapidated houses.
“These residents have lost a sense of pride in their community,” he said. “We want to do what we can, at our level, to restore that pride.”
Dorsey said his grandmother lived in the Eureka Mill Village during his childhood. He has seen homes in the village turn to what now are ruins -- and felt the wounded pride.
“That’s kind of where I grew up,” he said. “I just want it to be better.”
There’s crime, other hazards
Dilapidated homes are not just eyesores. They’re dangerous.
There are houses that pose a fire hazard or have mold and pose a threat to neighbors, County Councilman Alex Oliphant said.
Dorsey said the abandoned homes also are promoting crime.
“It allows people who are engaged in criminal activity to hang out around these homes,” he said. “Use them for drug use, prostitution, they’re places people can hide in.”
Dorsey said he doesn’t blame neighborhood residents for the crime: “Trouble comes here,” he said.
At last month’s county council meeting, Dorsey also warned of the potential for wild animals to live in and around the abandoned houses.
No code enforcement
It doesn’t have to be this way.
The county has had no building code enforcement officer since the position became vacant in December 2019, Chester Building & Zoning Director Mike Levister said.
Then the county froze hiring in late June due to coronavirus.
Code enforcement is the responsibility of the county Building and Zoning department, but Oliphant said citations have rarely been issued for dilapidated properties.
If the county can become stricter, he said, people might start maintaining their properties without legal action.
“If they know we’re serious,” he said, “They would just maintain the properties themselves.”
A code enforcement officer typically makes sure buildings follow zoning laws, land use ordinances and building codes. They make sure structures are safe to live in, and that those who are not maintaining their property are held accountable.
If someone has violated a code, the code enforcement officer would find the violator and send them a letter. If the owner did not correct the issue, they would receive a second notice, Oliphant said.
If the issue was not then corrected, the county could demolish the house and either charge the owner or put a lien on the property.
Dorsey said the county is ignoring poor people in places like Eureka Mill Village.
Oliphant said he hopes the county will start demolishing homes that violate codes, especially on main roads and communities where they are a danger to the public.
He said he hopes cleaning up abandoned homes will encourage people to take pride in their neighborhoods and maintain their own properties. It would help raise property value, he said.
“It will literally change the community,” he said. “People will want to live here, not have to live here.”
Part of the change would have to be hiring a new code enforcement officer, which Dorsey requested at the Aug. 17 county council meeting.
Oliphant said another option would be to hire a private contractor to handle code enforcement. That option would “take the politics out of it,” mitigating the problem of officers being reluctant to ticket people they know personally, he said.
The county council will write a job description for a code enforcement officer, and discuss other options for stricter code enforcement at their September meeting.
With the possibility for changes on the horizon, Hall told The Herald he is holding out hope for his home.
“If everyone could clean up,” he said. “Maybe we could bring this neighborhood back.”
