Sacramento Neighbors Concerned Over Blighted Home

SACRAMENTO (CBS13) -- A Sacramento woman was arrested in October for an unspeakable crime -- torturing her 12-year-old girl with an iron and staple gun -- and now her home has neighbors annoyed over the mess she left behind.

The girl's stepmother, Duewa Lee, is in jail on $3 million bail. Now neighbors are speaking out, not about what was happening behind closed doors, but what is happening in plain sight. They claim the South Sacramento home is becoming a haven for the homeless.

"It feels unsafe," one neighbor said. "That's why we put a lock on our gate."

CBS13 found a notice of abandonment left on the front door posted by the landlord, who says the lease was to be terminated Monday.

But neighbors say that the Sacramento Housing and Redevelopment Agency has turned a blind eye on the blight.

"We have a four-bedroom house here that is empty, being paid, a potion of it being paid, for by the taxpayers," one neighbor said.

They say the housing agency should be doing more because the house is part of its Section 8 rent subsidy program.

SHRA keeps that confidential, but responded with this statement to CBS13.

"Once the housing authority becomes aware of an arrest or conviction of a participant, termination (of a Section 8 contract) requires due process, which may take approximately 30 days."

But 30 days have passed since this woman was put behind bars.

"Something has to be done to cut the red tape on that," a neighbor said.

And neighbors say that time has gone bye twice when Lee has been locked up.

"We need to have somebody living there that's not like that," a neighbor said.

Another neighbor told CBS13 he's come out to mow what was knee high-grass at the home, the site of an alleged horrible crime that now has become the blight on the block.