INDIANAPOLIS — The year 2020 is barely two days old, but already residents on the south side are setting their resolutions and priority one is finally getting a half-burned house torn down.
"it's Jan. 2, 2020, and the house is still standing," Robin Wood-Gebhart said.
People in the neighborhood said they have been working to get the house at the corner of Harlan and Kelly torn down for years.
"I've been in this neighborhood since I was 16, and I'm 27 this year, and this house has been a problem since I was 16," Kattrina Conningham said.
In the past several months, they have ramped up efforts to get rid of the house after needles were found on the sidewalk in front of the home.
Neighbors said the house has become a haven for anything but good. They said the health and safety of neighborhood kids is the reason they won't stop fighting for the attention of city leaders who hold the power to demolish the property.
"My daughter's bus stop is right there at the corner," Conningham said. "What started all this uproar was the four needles out there and she picked on of them up. As you see there is a beautiful mattress on the porch now, somebody comes and sleeps on it at night."
A spokesperson for the City of Indianapolis said the house is set to be added to a bid list for properties that need to be torn down. An exact date has not yet been given, but the bid list being put together is for the first quarter of 2020. While that may sound complicated, neighbors said their request is simple.
"Please tear down the house. That would be the greatest thing they can do," Wood-Gebhart said. "We've been told for so long, but nothing. So when can we see action, please."
