Crosby Resident Fights Back Against Abandoned Neighbor Property, Owner Faces Charges

Beatrice Goudeau has had enough. The Crosby woman, whose son's home sits directly next to an abandoned property in northeast Harris County, spent months watching trash pile up, rodents move in, and strangers congregate on the vacant lot while her calls to county authorities produced little visible change.

That changed when Harris County Public Health escalated its enforcement. Goudeau filed a complaint with the department last September, triggering five separate investigations of the property over the months that followed. Inspectors confirmed the deteriorating conditions, the owner was ordered to clean up the site and failed to comply, and county officials have now filed misdemeanor charges against the owner for failure to abate a public health nuisance. A court date is set for May.

"You wouldn't want to live next door to something like this," Goudeau said. "You see something that needs to be torn down."

ABC13 reached out to the property owner for comment and received no response.

The case captures a problem that has surfaced repeatedly across Crosby and other unincorporated pockets of northeast Harris County: abandoned or neglected properties that attract illegal dumping, pests, and trespassers, creating public health risks for the neighbors left to bear the consequences. In unincorporated areas, enforcement responsibility falls largely on county departments, and the gap between a first complaint and meaningful action can stretch across seasons, as it did here.

Five investigations over roughly six months before criminal charges were filed illustrates how slowly the abatement process can move even when a resident is actively documenting and reporting. For Goudeau, that timeline represents months of living next to conditions she described as unlivable.

County officials said they are monitoring the property closely as the case heads toward the May court date. If convicted, the owner could face fines and a court order requiring remediation, with the county potentially stepping in to complete the cleanup and placing a lien on the parcel to recover costs.