HARRISBURG, Pa. (WHTM) -
A recent building collapse on Briggs Street in Harrisburg has residents talking about the blight problem in the city.
Gina Vazquez lives on the 300 block of Crescent Street where there are several vacant and condemned buildings. Her family boarded up the vacant house next to them to protect their children.
"People are using them as drug houses," Vazquez said. "We have had several shootings on that block. They need to do something soon. Something has to be done."
"Trash and blight breeds crime," said Camille Erice, who has lived in the city for more than 20 years and is a volunteer on her neighborhood crime watch.
"There are two rundown properties right across the street from where I live and they are both falling apart," Erice said. "These bad people come into our neighborhoods and they see a blighted building and because they think nobody cares they think they can do whatever they want. This is the worst that its gotten and I am sick of it."
The Community Action Commission, a non-profit group based out of Harrisburg, is trying to help solve the problem.
"We want to really hold some of these property owners accountable for not maintaining their properties, we want to educate the community, and we want to empower the neighborhoods to clean up," said Chris Fegley of the Community Action Commission.
The Community Action Commission works with grants and volunteers to help clean up neighborhoods.
According to Harrisburg's codes department, there are close to 300 condemned buildings in the city that need to be knocked down; buildings that could fall down on their own.
"I grew up in Harrisburg on 21st Street and unfortunately I had a very close family friend, about 20 years ago, that lost his three-year-old son to a wall that collapsed in this neighborhood," Fegley said.
City spokesman Bob Philbin said Mayor Linda Thompson is working on a plan to address blight in the city. He said details will be released in about two weeks.
