Frayser Man Says He’s Living Next To Snakes And Rats

(Memphis) Rats, raccoons and snakes.

One man in the Frayser area says they’re all coming from a vacant house next door ,and he wants the City to do something about it.

“We got grass in the back five foot high,” said Charles Sanders. “We have rats and snakes, and I am talking about rats as big as cats.”

Sanders says, on Denver Street, the vermin are taking over the vacant house next door. 

Snakes are greeting children on their walks home from school, and the homeless are finding shelter between the boarded-up walls.

Sanders says the City has mowed the grass once the last year and a half, “I have begged. I have pleaded. I have called the City at least once a week.”

So, News Channel 3 made some calls as well on Sanders behalf.

We talked to the mayor’s spokesperson who said the house is not the property of the City, which means the owner is responsible for it’s maintenance.

Yet the City already cut the grass once in April and is planning to do it again soon.

The City adds the cost of the mowing to the property taxes charged to the home.

But the City says it can’t cut the grass for each neglectful property owner.

There are 63,000 vacant lots and houses in Memphis. 

Charles says that he only knows about the one on his street and he just wants it cleaned-up, “I have bent over backwards trying to get something done about this.”