Neighbor: City-owned property so overgrown it causes power outages

DETROIT (WJBK) - Neighbors are turning to FOX 2 Problem Solvers after a city-owned property becomes an overgrown eyesore.

"I feel like I stay in Africa somewhere. The bushes grow up and I've seen a big ole' raccoon bigger than me and you," said Rachel Moss.

Rachel wants her house to feel like home, but when she looks next door she says she cringes. 

"I'm living next-door to a jungle. I mean, I don't know what's back there," she said.

Moss says year after year, she has called the city about the Land Bank-owned home and has been told it's on the list for demolition. But over the years, the problem keeps growing.

Rachel says the overgrown brush leans against the power lines, leaving her sometimes in the dark -- she says she's spent seven days without any lights before.

"Even the electrical company had to get the big old trucks and  get back there and try to cut down the trees and the limbs before they could get to the wires," she said.

Moss says this property has been like this for nearly a decade and she wants the city to do something now. Fox 2 contacted the Land Bank about its property but got directed to the city because of the backyard cleanup.

"Our department general services we have been  partnering with the Land Bank Authority so that we can help them get rid of some of these properties that are nuisance and abatement," said Crystal Perkins with the City of Detroit.

After Fox 2 contacted the city, a number of crews were sent out to clean up the property on Jordan Street. City officials say they are working with the Land Bank to help meet the needs of the community.

"We are working in partnership with the Land Bank to get this done so the city can be safer and prettier," Perkins said.

And as Moss waits for the house to be demolished, she says as long as the city does its part she'll keep doing hers.

"You clean it up, I'll help keep it clean," she said.