GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — A home in Grand Rapids’ Boston Square neighborhood has been condemned and its owner kicked out after years of housing violations.
Boston Street SE west of Kalamazoo Avenue was shut down for hours on Wednesday as crews cleaning out the house hauled piles of wood and other debris, including tires that littered the yard, into a waiting garbage truck. Workers boarded up the windows before they left.
The city deemed the home unfit for occupancy because of unsanitary conditions.
24 Hour News 8 asked the homeowner, Idella Williams, if she’s a hoarder.
“I used to and the hoarding that they’re talking about is the things that I brought from 935 Kalamazoo (Ave.),” she said, speaking only 24 Hour News 8 on Wednesday afternoon.
Williams, a local pastor, says she keeps mattresses and three storage units of clothes for people who may need them. But she said she isn’t a hoarder now and keeps her home organized.
24 Hour News 8 spoke with her outside Mercy Health Saint Mary’s Hospital, where she said she was being treated for complications from a car crash two years ago and stress.
“Because they put me out of my house, I didn’t get my medicine or anything,” Williams said.
She said she doesn’t understand why she was forced to leave her home.
“It’s wrong and unjust. It’s my home and even if I was a hoarder and if they can walk through it, that’s up to me,” she said. “I’ve seen many houses worse than me and I’m not going to talk and say, but I feel that if I’m paying for my house, why can’t I live the way that I want to live?”
But court documents show violations date back for years.
On two separate occasions within the last few months, Williams denied access to inspectors who were trying determine what violations existed at her home and how they could be corrected.
“It was just a mess. The front yard, you could walk past the front yard, you’d see 20 or 30 kitchen chairs just sitting there and all kinds of other various sundry junk,” neighbor Karen Van Dyke said.
Van Dyke, who has lived on this street since 1979, said the problems at Williams’ home date back for years. She wrote a letter to the city a few years ago and even testified in court to put an end to the mess, but the problems continued.
“It’s just nasty and you always wonder about what’s germinating back in the back there, like will we see rats? Not good,” Van Dyke said.
Last year, the city says, a dog was found eating the body of a dead dog on Williams’ property. But Williams says she takes care of her dogs and doesn’t understand what happened.
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