From the front, the house at 106 Cypress Ave. looks similar to the others on this quiet street on Wrightsville Beach’s Harbor Island. A few plants out front, some trees to provide shade, a small porch on which to rest.
But a walk down the public right-of-way to the side of the home reveals a different story; one that seems difficult to believe in an affluent community like Wrightsville Beach. A boarded-up window, an overgrown shed, a broken window. The house appears abandoned.
“As a mother, I worry about vermin. I have children playing in the neighborhood,” said one anonymous neighbor. “It brings the neighborhood down. I don’t know what’s in there. Or who’s in there.”
It’s one of two within a few blocks that Wrightsville Beach officials are working to address through the town’s minimum housing code.
Tony Wilson, Wrightsville Beach Planning and Parks director, said he has made contact with the owner of the Cypress Avenue house and contractors were scheduled to make repairs to the home, though no building permit has been filed.
The town has been in contact with the owner of a house on South Channel Drive about dilapidation of the guest house behind the property, but Wilson had no comment on whether repairs would be made.
Wrightsville Beach has a minimum housing code that requires properties to be maintained to certain levels, which include structural soundness, adequate lighting and tightness of doors and windows to prevent water leakage and rodent problems.
While not common, houses in Wrightsville Beach do occasionally fall into disrepair.
“It does happen, even at Wrightsville Beach,” Wilson said.
Once neighbors voice their concerns, town officials begin a process to contact owners and request they meet compliance. If police or fire officials see houses that fail to meet the minimum housing code, they also must report it to officials, town ordinance states.
“It’s a long process,” Wilson said, noting that “owners always have the option to make repairs to the house.”
Wilson, who has been employed with the town for 19 years, said in his experience the town has never had to condemn a house for violation of the housing code. However, in one case early in his career, the owners of a house on the beach elected to move the home rather than make the repairs to bring it up to code.
In the case of 106 Cypress Ave., neighbors say they periodically see the owner and lawn maintenance crews are sometimes over, though the dilapidation of the house still hasn’t been fixed.
Some neighbors had questions about a third house, though town officials said they haven’t received any complaints. However, the resident no longer appears to live there, a dusty minivan sits in the driveway, and until recently the yard went several weeks without mowing.
A neighbor of the house on Live Oak Drive said the elderly female resident hasn’t been seen in at least seven months. The woman didn’t leave the house much, except to occasionally walk with her two adult sons or her two small dogs. However, there were often a few lights on, and lawn care crews kept the grass cut and the bushes trimmed.
Recently, the signs of her presence disappeared, the neighbor said, and the evidence of abandonment grew, starting with grass that had grown knee-high and brown palm fronds that had gone unpruned.
While crews have recently mowed the lawn, the brown palm fronds remain, as does the dirty minivan, where a few words are scribbled in the dust, along with the remnants of what look like cat paw prints.
Neighbors said considering their value, homes on Harbor Island should not be left to neglect.
Regarding the Cypress Avenue home, neighbors said they were glad town officials contacted the owner.
“It gives [the owner] an opportunity to take care of it,” the neighbor said. “[The owner] has a chance to make things right.”
People should reach out and check in on their elderly neighbors when they see properties that are starting to fall into disrepair and see if they need help before they get to this point.