Whether you live in Opelousas or drive through the city, you may have noticed several properties in need of demolition and renovation.
Toni Effinger is the Owner of ReMax Excellence, a real estate agency in Opelousas. She said blighted properties are a problem for everyone.
"With the blighted properties, of course it's a concern for the neighborhood and the people that live in the neighborhood," Egginger said. "Of course, anyone has safety concerns when they're living next to a blighted property."
Effinger said people often associate abandoned properties with crime. Walkability and crime statistics are two factors many buyers consider, when house-hunting.
"If you have safety concerns, then there's a possibility you will not be interested in purchasing that property, that's next to a blighted property," Effinger said.
Linda Carrier said she has been living in Opelousas for more than 45 years. Carrier said she's tired of her neighbors using their property as a dump site.
"They don't sleep at night. They come dump trash in the middle of the night, in the middle of the day, non-stop," Carrier said. "A big, business right here...It's not supposed to be there, but code enforcement is allowing it."
Carrier said her property value is going down, since her neighbors and other residents in the neighborhood don't maintain their land or their homes.
"The administration that we have now, they need to do a better job because it's going down," Carrier said. "It's not going up or nothing...And they letting these people live like that, I don't know why."
