SAN ANTONIO — The City of San Antonio is cracking down on vacant buildings causing trouble in neighborhoods.
Tuesday evening, a fire destroyed an empty house in the 200 block of Briggs Avenue on the southwest side, charring the side of a neighboring home.
Neighbors say the property sat vacant before trespassers started camping out.
KENS 5 learned what's being done to help put a stop to fires just like this.
"The vacant houses, there's a lot of druggies over here. They go in and out," said Esperanza Sierra, who lives in the 200 block of Briggs.
Sierra moved to the neighborhood five years ago from California.
She's decided to leave.
"I'm trying to move out of here because I don't like it anymore," said Sierra. "I didn't know it was this bad."
Since moving in, Sierra says she feels unsafe with the amount of strangers camping out in nearby vacant homes.
"They see the house. They see that nobody lives there, so they just crash," she explained.
The City's Office of Historic Preservation believes by getting vacant buildings back to productive use, it helps prevent these fires.
"We know that vacancy can contribute to public safety concerns, risk of fire, things like that," said Shanon Miller, Director of San Antonio's Office of Historic Preservation.
In 2015, San Antonio City Council adopted the Vacant Building Program as a pilot program. It expanded in 2017, then again last month.
In areas covered under the Vacant Building Program, the owner of an empty house must register the property and must keep the building in good condition.
"The property has to look like it could be occupied," Miller explained. "A lot of times vacant properties can detract from property values of those around them if they're substandard or create a nuisance in some way."
The goal of the program is to address the root cause of vacancy. In doing so, it can help improve public safety and encourage economic development.
This map shows the neighborhoods that fall under the Vacant Building Program.
The coverage area include homes within a half-mile of active military bases, historic districts and conservation districts. Last month's expansion increased the coverage area to include homes within 1,000 feet of schools and state-licensed day cares.
It is up to the property owner to maintain the vacant home, and there are resources available here.
The public can also report a vacant home not up to standards in their neighborhood if they fall in the program coverage area. You can report the address here, or you can call 210-207-7244.
The home off Briggs Avenue, the map finds, is not part of the program's coverage area, therefore it wasn't subject to the Vacant Building Ordinance.