Property overrun with trash, homeless for years finally getting cleaned up in Security-Widefield

SECURITY-WIDEFIELD, Colo. (KRDO) -- After a three-year battle with El Paso County, a property in Security-Widefield that was overrun by people who are homeless is now being cleaned up.

The front gate to 106 Bradley Street is locked up with a "No Trespassing" sign and a court order. The home was damaged by a fire in 2017 and was shortly after taken over by squatters, according to neighbors.

The El Paso County Sheriff's Office kicked off those living on the property so clean-up efforts could start Thursday, something that neighbors thought would never happen.

"We were more shocked than anything like, 'Oh my God something is actually being done!'", says neighbor Andreas Harmon.

Harmon spoke to KRDO back in 2018 about the same issue when dozens of complaints from neighbors had been filed. Since then, he thought the view of a burnt down house and a yard completely covered with trash would be something he would have to look at for as long as he lived there. Harmon saying, "After three years you just give up."

The hopelessness was felt throughout the neighborhood, even leading to the other next-door neighbor Tucker Shelton to put his home up for sale.

"We've had to deal with it for years and you have to think about the quality of life that was affected," Shelton said.

While he is glad the county stepped in, it doesn't change what he and his neighbors have gone through.

"It gets scary," Shelton says. "Actually two weeks ago we had somebody come in our back door."

That wasn't the only issue Shelton and Harmon faced. Dozens of homeless people would stay at the property and their trash would find its way onto their lawns. The smell of human waste could also be smelled throughout the neighborhood.

The process to get the place cleaned up has been in the works since March 2018 according to an El Paso County spokesperson. In 2017, the home at that address was deemed a dangerous building after the fire and the owner was ordered to vacate the property but didn't.

Then in October of 2018, the Pikes Peak Regional Building Development declared the property a public nuisance and ordered for what remained of the home to be demolished but the homeowner continued to live on the property illegally, letting squatters stay with him.

On January 5, 2019, the court issued the first of many orders for the homeowner and unlawful occupants to cease and desist the violations.

The county continued to update the courts on the situation when COVID-19 took over and slowed the courts down. Then finally near the end of September, a warrant was signed.

Despite the change, Shelton still plans to sell his house and worries even with clean-up efforts, those who squatted at the home will return.

"I'm sure everyone on the street is grateful but also has some reservations about the actual outcome like when they are done are they just going to come back and bring all of this back," Shelton says.