City cleans up overgrown yards at vacant homes after CBS News Philadelphia story

An Olney woman recently contacted CBS News Philadelphia because she's been living between two vacant homes for eight years. The weeds had grown taller than her car and were encroaching on her yard, and raccoons and stray cats were running around. 

Tracy Coley said complaints to the city didn't help, so she turned to CBS News Philadelphia.

Friday morning, four days after our story, city workers were on the job for hours on North Fairhill Street in Olney, finally cutting overgrown grass at the two vacant properties and painting the boarded homes.

We first met Coley last week when the grass on either side of her house was six feet tall, both in the front and back.  

She said she saw stray cats and raccoons darting out of the weeds, and this has gone on for years. Earlier this year, she captured video of raccoons crawling around the porch and said they get into the neighboring home through a hole in the porch.

"I think it's ridiculous and a slap in the face to me because this is ongoing," Coley said.

A spokesperson with the city's Quality of Life Division told us the process to rectify violations that are not a threat to life or safety can be long and the owners of both properties were issued violations. They have 30 days to fix the problems but Coley says they never do.

Since it's an abandoned property and Coley has never seen owners clean up anything, it's unclear who receives the notice of violations. According to city data, there are approximately 8,000 vacant homes in Philadelphia.

"Channel 3 put it on the news and that's why they're here, because y'all helped me out," Coley said.

There's still a hole in the roof of the porch next to hers and she's worried racoons will be back. Two houses across the street are also abandoned. She's hoping the city will take care of those issues next.