LONG AFTER DRUG RAID, HOUSE STILL IS NOT A HOME

The house on Bethune Avenue is still boarded up, as if it were a beige and
wooden tomb.

That's better than the 24-7 drug den it once was alleged to be. And
neighbors are pleased. But it won't be a home until someone claims
ownership of the abandoned house.

Police raided the alleged crack house in North Austin and drove out the
inhabitants of an uninhabitable house on March 7. I wrote about it on March 10.

The drug raid rid neighbors of one nuisance but left them with another.

About 2 1/2 months later, city crews were building a new sidewalk that
leads to a new elementary school and perhaps a better future for the
street. But the same old stuff was outside the house. A toilet was tossed
in the back yard. A faded floral love seat lounged nearby. An old 45 record
was two inches from where it was in March. A Budweiser can still sat on the
back porch on top of a fading imitation-wood coffee table. And the grass in
the front yard was about 3 inches tall, while shrubs were beginning to
crawl up the side of the house.

The outside of the house looks the same today as it did when I first saw
it, with one exception: The windows are sealed with planks.

If you fix the broken windows in a neighborhood, you help instill
neighborhood pride. So goes the theory of broken windows, an approach to
community redevelopment and crime prevention. The windows on the house
aren't broken, as they once were. But whether they are broken or boarded
up, the house could remain an eyesore until someone repairs it.

At least it's quiet now at the house, which was once as busy as a
convenience store, neighbors say.

"You don't have to worry about people disturbing the community at 4 or 5 in
the morning," said Andrew Acosta, who lives on the street. "You don't worry
about people jumping into your yard because they're high."

Abandoned houses are littered throughout the city, their owners gone to the
grave, like Goldie H. Walton, the owner of record of the house on Bethune,
or gone missing. Walton died 15 years ago, and title issues are still being
resolved.

Searches for the rightful heirs sometimes can take years. Property remains
tied up in legal knots, preventing people from purchasing and
rehabilitating the houses. It's a waste of housing stock in a city where
housing appraisals are soaring and people are scrounging for a place to live.

When inspectors closed the house because it violated building codes, two
men who were living there were forced to leave and told to repair the house
if they wanted to return. They also faced fines of up to $1,000 a day.

As penalties mount on the house, it remains boarded up. And neighbors, who
only vaguely remember the names of the people who lived there after Walton
died, wonder what will happen to it. Will someone buy it? Will it become a
home again?

The house was secure when city inspectors checked it on April 25. It was
secure again on May 3. The neighbors say it's quiet on their block of
Bethune Avenue.

It's safe to say the house is not a crack house now. But it's not a home
yet, either.

Susan Smith's column appears Wednesdays and Saturdays.