Sheepshead Bay residents say 'zombie homes' are eyesore after Sandy reconstruction

Residents in Sheepshead Bay say they are concerned with a block that has become overrun with "zombie homes."

News 12 Staff

Aug 20, 2019, 11:25 AM

Updated 1,704 days ago

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Residents in Sheepshead Bay say they are concerned with a block that has become overrun with "zombie homes."
News 12 is told that the Lake Avenue Revival is almost complete after being ravaged by Superstorm Sandy nearly seven years ago.
Despite the construction, neighbors say there are still several homes that have been abandoned since Superstorm Sandy and have been left to deteriorate, while other homes around it have been resurrected.
"If I live here, I'm looking at this house, or this house. This is full of mold. It's full of mold, there's cats going in there, who knows people squatting? The doors are wide open," says Sheepshead Bay resident Missy Haggerty.
News 12 could not track down the owners of the four abandoned houses on the block and neither could Councilman Chaim Deutsch.
"If we cannot locate an owner to one of these properties, then what needs to be done next? Because if you ask me, these homes need to be demolished," says Councilman Deutsch.
However, city agencies say outright demolition would be complicated. Instead, the Department of Housing Preservation and Development will seal the houses off and the Department of Buildings will assess their structural integrity. If they're stable, News 12 is told there's not much more the city can do.
"It kind of makes you be like, ‘OK, we got to go back home again.’ It's not even exciting cause we know we still have to deal with this," says Haggerty.


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