A skilled carpenter’s home in Georgia was unexpectedly demolished without warning or compensation from the county.
Eric Arnold of New Jersey decided to pack his bags and move to Georgia to live where his mother grew up. He took on several home renovation projects, including the property in Macon-Bibb County.
He purchased the home in 2022 for $15,000 and began upgrading it to make it a future home for his children and grandchildren.
But his plans were thwarted when a neighbor called Arnold to ask about a dumpster that had been placed on his property.
Carpenter Eric Arnold was shocked when Macon-Bibb County demolished his home in 2023
Arnold filed a lawsuit against the county, claiming it was unconstitutional to destroy his home.
He told the Institute of Justice: “I felt a bad vibe that something was wrong and I felt it through the spirit of my soul.
“That’s when all hell broke loose.”
After two months of confusion and mixed signals from the country’s officials, Arnold’s home was demolished on November 15, 2023.
She filed a lawsuit against the county, claiming the destruction of her home was unconstitutional.
He told the Institute for Justice: “When you tear something down like that and destroy families, he just destroyed my entire generation. Now I have nothing.”
Arnold’s neighbor alerted him to a dumpster outside his home in September 2023.
Arnold spent years cleaning and renovating the property.
“When I arrived and saw the house demolished, I was devastated. My heart started to pound, I cried and started to sweat.”
Macon-Bibb County has a blight problem, but instead of working with community residents to find a solution or communicating their plans, they simply resort to tearing down homes.
Blighted properties are those that are considered a disturbance to the surrounding area, according to the Center for Community Progress.
Arnold argued that he was in the process of repairing the house and had completely transformed it from its original state.
The county prides itself on its efforts against blight and has destroyed 800 homes.
In the past three years, more than 800 homes have been destroyed in the county, according to the lawsuit.
Over the past five years, Macon-Bibb County has implemented several blight control measures, including demolitions and tax increases on blighted properties.
Arnold’s attorneys say he is not the only victim of home demolitions in the area.
He said WMAZ TV Channel: ‘They took away my dignity, as if I were not a person. They took away my dignity, as if I were not a person.’
There have been at least nine other lawsuits against the county for similar situations, according to the Atlanta Black Star.
Macon-Bibb County officials said The Macon Telegraph that despite Arnold’s claims, he was given sufficient notice of the demolition.
The devastated homeowner shows a photograph of what his property looked like before it was demolished.
But one source of confusion could be the fact that the house was listed under the name of a previous owner.
The suit also alleges that Deputy County Attorney Frank Howard told Arnold he could go to jail for renovating his home without a license and proceeded to offensively ask, “What are you going to do? Turn Macon black again?”
Other officials contradicted Howard, saying Arnold did not need a license to renovate the home.