KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Friday will mark a week since a building known as "The Pink House" on 4337 Troost Ave. caught fire and partially collapsed.
The City of Kansas City, Missouri, posted an emergency order on the home on Monday for demolition.
Although it's a three-story house in Manheim Park, its neighbors don't see it as a home.
Dontavious Young lives a couple of blocks away and owns Equal Minded Cafe next to the property.
Young's grandmother purchased the business 13 years ago. It's his seventh year running it.
He said: "This building has attracted all types of individuals that do sketchy things, bad things to the neighborhood. We just don't want that anymore."
Young said the house is visited by drug users and scares away people from his business.
For years, he said he filed complaints with several city departments including 311.
"All the departments you could think of, we reported to," Young said.
The Pink House, officially known as "A Splash of Life KC," is owned by Jerry Crowell.
Its original purpose was for the house to operate as a free community resource hub for people in need. However, it functions more as a stockpile and illegal dump of random items that spill onto the sidewalk.
"People are fed up," Young said.
A parking lot full of debris from the home fell on Young's property after the fire.
His business had to close after it lost power.
Young, along with many others, have been trying to get the city to listen for years.
"Given previous conversations I'm pretty sure this would be the straw that broke the camel's back," said Third District KCMO Councilwoman Melissa Robinson. "It's beyond repair."
After at least two dozen code violation cases, the house is now on Kansas City's dangerous buildings list for a second time.
According to a city spokesperson, the property was removed from the city’s dangerous buildings list in the past because the owner repaired the roof and the building was structurally sound.
KCMO will demolish it on Monday.
Councilwoman Robinson said, "It is one we were unable to save. We tried to work with the property owner on that because they wanted some authority and autonomy over how that was done. The city had to step in and say we have to get this property and land in the community again in a condition that is neat and orderly."
The idea of the home being demolished after Young's grandmother brought the business to the community, means there may be some change in the neighborhood.
"Probably a mile radius from here the crime will significantly decrease. On top of that, people will feel safer coming to this area. For a long time, Troost was seen as a scary place...a place people didn't want to come to. This is almost the only block that just driving past, you'll still feel that way about Troost," Young said.
Crowell told KSHB 41 on Thursday he is not happy with the city's involvement.
He wants to fix it up but does not have enough money to make it happen.
Crowell initially planned to hire his own crew to demolish the building. It's unclear why the city took on the project.
Details haven't been shared on how much it will cost and whether the financial obligation will be passed to the owner.
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KSHB 41 reporter Alyssa Jackson covers portions of Johnson County, including neighborhoods in Overland Park, Shawnee and Mission. Share your story idea with Alyssa.
