MCALESTER, Okla. — Numerous cities across our state face blight. On May 13, one city approved a property maintenancecode that it hopes will help fight blight.
2 News Oklahoma listened to McAlester residents and brought their thoughts and concerns to city leaders.
“It makes me sick to my stomach seeing this place,” Maria Childers told us. “I used to live here when I was a kid. I can remember houses all never was like this before.”
Ever since moving to her neighborhood west of the tracks six years ago, she and her husband Clarence Williams said a house across the street has always been in shambles. In fact, they’re almost entirely surrounded by blighted lots.
“I'm a very neat person,” said Williams.
He likes to keep his yard tidy — but wishes many of his neighbors did the same.
“There's big snakes that come out of that grass — six, seven foot long,” he said, pointing at some overgrown grass on a neighboring lot.
“It's danger to me, you know, because I got little dogs,” he added.
When asked if she thinks these blighted houses bring crime to their area, Childers replied, “Yes, I do.”
She said people are starting to call her part of town “Meth McAlester” or “Meth-Alester,” adding “You see all these bandit houses. This is where the drug addicts going.”
WATCH: McAlester City Council passes property maintenance ordinance
“It's getting a little outta hand,” said Joshua Padilla. “We need to do something about 'em. They are lowering property values.”
Padilla is a local contractor who showed us one of the blighted properties he’s demolishing.
He says he’ll “go around and purchase these dilapidated buildings” and rebuild them. He has nine properties now.
While Padilla supported the new property maintenance ordinance — and admitted he would stand to profit from it — he had some fears about it.
“I mean, look at the economy, the way it's been,” he mentioned. “They want people to choose between their medicine or taking care of this. I mean, what do you think they're gonna choose?”
While the ordinance can certainly apply to homeowners, the city’s community development director, Jayme Clifton, told 2 News, “We have received complaints from renters before, like, ‘Hey, I can't get my landlord to do anything.’ And there's kind of some substandard living conditions.”
But, in short, this ordinance chiefly requires property owners to have an adequate connection to utilities like water, sewage, and electricity, and to not have holes or rotting in the exterior walls, doors, roofs, or windows.
One person over Facebook reached out to us, expressing concerns for lower-income households who might not be able to afford repairs, wondering if those households might have time to get their house in order.
We asked Clifton if the ordinance allows for this, and she replied, “Yes. … It is to the discretion of the code official, you know, and I can't assure that. If we feel that we're seeing reasonable attempts to correct it, we most definitely will work with them.”
McAlester Mayor Justin Few told 2 News, “One of the great things in McAlester is we're so community-minded, and we actually have several services out there — whether it's helping people with home repairs, utility bills with rent, food, clothing — McAlester's a very giving community.”
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