Some relief has come to a North Park neighborhood where squatters had taken over several homes that belong to a local church.
Neighbors said the squatters are gone, but what’s coming to the area is still unclear.
“We know each other, we walk our babies, we walk around, it’s very family oriented,” Angie Martinez said.
Martinez has lived on Bancroft Street for 23 years.
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She’s among the dozens of residents who love this neighborhood for its peace and safety.
However, some say the sense of safety was disrupted when squatters occupied five vacant homes along the block.
“I used to see the police coming a few times at night, it started getting very dirty, noise, and the neighbors started calling the police because at one point it was getting out of hand,” Martinez said.
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The homes, which sit on Bancroft, belong to the Maker’s Church, which is also part of this community.
Five complaints had been filed through the city's Get It Done App. Some described people doing drugs on the porch and others claimed Maker’s Church had not properly secured the abandoned properties.
“At one point you start feeling like it’s not safe and it’s getting the attraction of more people doing drugs, more homeless coming in,” Martinez said.
When we first reached out to the church, the lead pastor said they were collaborating with the San Diego Police Department and Development Services on short-term and long-term response strategies for the properties.
Since we first brought you that story, neighbors say they’ve noticed action has been taken, but they’re still unclear about what’s coming to their community.
“I don’t know what is going on, but hopefully whatever they do, it seems like now it’s going to be a demolition, maybe a building, I don’t know,” Martinez said.
NBC 7 reached out to Makers Church to ask what will happen with the homes and if they could provide a timeline.
In a statement, Pastor Derrick Miller said, "We're proactively maintaining the properties and they’ve engaged a company to remediate any hazardous materials such as asbestos and lead from the homes while they continue to develop the long-term vision and plan for the church property in North Park."
Last month, Miller said the city was working with the people who were illegally living in the abandoned homes to find shelter in a city-sanctioned facility.
