BATON ROUGE - More people are contacting 2 On Your Side about the conditions of properties owned by Collis Temple. It follows a series of reports about a blind man in a wheelchair living in a rotting house owned by Temple. That man is now in a rehab facility.

Another property owned by Collis Temple went up for condemnation in 2023. It's listed on the tax assessor's website under The Harmony Center, Inc. It was removed from the agenda by the Metro Council. The blue house on Laurel Street and N. 13th Street is boarded up. A neighbor living nearby who does not want to be identified is asking for change.

"The police come out regularly, to the point we know half of them by name," she said.

It's frustrating to the woman who has seen people having intimate relations in the driveway, witnessed people breaking in, and setting fire to debris in the front yard.

"We've been trying everything," she said.

It has a history of tenants and visitors. The woman says about 14 years ago, a family was living in the house. The tenant reported a hole in the kitchen floor.

"The woman would laugh about it; 'The raccoons come in my house through the hole,' and she said, 'I told him,' he fixed the hole by giving her a rug to put over the hole," she said.

There are several holes over the porch roof, where clothing, trash, and litter have been left behind.

"We contacted the city, they had an inspector come out and looked to get it demolished," said the woman.

A city inspection from March 2022 notes that homeless people were staying inside of the screened-in porch and it was referred to the parish attorney for condemnation. The property was revisited by the city in January 2023 and noted no improvements were made to the property. That's when it was brought up for condemnation at Metro Council. On January 11, 2023, Councilwoman Carolyn Coleman requested that the item be deleted from the agenda.

"Because the owner had assured her he would repair it within months," said the neighbor.

Coleman stopped a property on Longfellow Drive from being heard for emergency condemnation at Wednesday's council meeting. The property, also owned by Temple, was destroyed by fire in January 2025.

The grass is kept tidy. Temple owns several properties on Laurel Street and surrounding area, including a group home where police responded to a shooting in March 2024. The coroner's office responded to another property owned by Temple in August 2023, where they found a homeless man who died from complications due to seizures.

Neighbors are asking Temple to fix up the properties or sell them to someone who will.

"If you have the money to own multiple properties that you're leaving abandoned for so long, why damage the neighborhood; just be done with it and sell it to someone who at best, will tear it down," she said.

The boarded-up house on Laurel Street is no longer up for condemnation, but the city says it's keeping an eye on it. Temple did not return calls for comment Friday.