'Scary' Richmond home prompts Problem Solvers call

RICHMOND, Va. -- A Richmond woman said she was starting to feel relieved now that something was being done next to her South Richmond home. Frustrated and scared over the condition of a neighbor's Fairfax Avenue home, Josephine Ogburn reached out to the CBS 6 Problem Solvers hoping for results. She got them.

Ogburn said the home next to her house has been blighted for decades.

The property had been deemed an imminent safety danger that required demolition and condemned by the City of Richmond, as detailed by paperwork taped to a window of the house. That paperwork dated back to 2018.

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Frustrated with overgrown brush and fearful of rodents and other animals that might turn this house into their home, Ogburn turned to the Problem Solvers to shed light on the issue.

"It looks like a jungle. I wake up at night and I say, 'Lord, I hope a raccoon or possum doesn't come in here on us at night and attack us,'" she said.

Ogburn said she had given up that this blighted property would ever be cleaned up, but within a day of the Problem Solvers story hitting TVs around Richmond, a tree covering the front of the house was taken down. Since then she has seen workers inside fixing the property.

"It’s a blessing that they are working on it," she said. "And they started working on it as soon as they saw us on TV."

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A city rep recently explained the property had been in the Derelict Building Program and was moving through the court system. They added the house owner was given a notice of violation and civil penalty for overgrowth on the property and work done by a contractor would be billed to the owner.

"I'm glad they finally got it done, but it took a long time," Ogburn said.