AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - Augusta’s blighted properties are a chronic problem.

That’s according to code enforcement, who already have their hands full responding to hundreds of code violations within the last two months.

They’re dealing with everything from overgrown grass to abandoned vehicles and homes that need to be demolished.

City commissioners are debating adding more teeth to the blight ordinance.

But in the meantime, neighborhoods are feeling the effects of these problem properties.

When you live next door to a building that has been condemned, it can be an eye-sore.

The director of Planning and Development recommended to commissioners that her office, along with Environmental Services, review a chronic nuisance ordinance so that they can start addressing these blighted properties faster.

The Garden City is a name promising beauty.

Yet in every frame, blight blooms louder than any flower.

Lingering in the shadows where hope slowly fades are neighbors who just want to be proud of all they’ve worked for.

“We are a neighborhood, and we ought to stick together and work together and try to get this neighborhood back right ourselves if nobody else will help,” said homeowner Angie Spence.

Spence has lived in Harrisburg all of her life.

In that time, several unwanted neighbors have moved in.

“That’s been like that for I want to say at least five years. It’s just too far gone because it’s so old, that you have to tear it down and rebuild it again. Nobody wants to come out of pocket like that,” she said.

A list of properties in Richmond County considered blight stretches to nearly every corner of the county.

“We knew nothing about here,” said homeowner Cathy Cooper.

Also, in Harrisburg is Cooper and her family.

Cooper says her house had a lot of potential, and she believes her neighborhood does too.

“There are hiccups, but there’s hiccups in any place that you go to. It’s an up-and-coming area. You do see from the time that we moved here until 2013 to 2025. You do see that things have changed,” said Cooper.

But she says more could be done.

“I would like for them to see more cleanup in this area, as far as just start with basic street sweeping on a regular basis, on a weekly basis, and not having a street sweeper come whenever I put a 311 request in,” said Cooper.

Through all the decay, it is the neighbor’s love for their neighborhood that stands the tallest.

Spence said: “I think if the neighborhood got brought up better. I think people around here will start feeling better about themselves and they will start doing better around here.”

Some commissioners also say they’d like to have conversations about centralizing the demolition processes because of how widespread it is right now.

They say it can be hard to see the progress they are making.