SE Austin residents annoyed as homeless take over vacant house [Video]

AUSTIN, Texas — Some southeast Austin residents are fed up with the crime, traffic and late-night noise coming from a vacant home taken over by homeless people. 

One neighbor, who didn’t want to reveal his identity, said the crime on Bitter Creek Drive has increased over the last two years.

“We’ve had shootings stemming out of there,” said the neighbor. “We’ve had the place catch on fire, and we have people coming in and out all kinds of times.”

Thayer Smith with the Austin Fire Department (AFD) said they’ve responded to that location six times over the past six months, mostly for trash fires. Austin Police said they’ve been there 11 times since March 1.

“We are having an uptick in issuesrelated to what we believe are homeless individuals …