Craig Kroné is one of the squatters who were staying at 3 Justin Street, Brooklyn, when Tabletalk visited the property in July.
Brooklyn residents want the City to demolish the dilapidated council houses along Justin Street after the body of a homeless man was found there last week.
On Thursday, a video of police vans and a crowd of people surfaced on a Brooklyn community WhatsApp group where it was noted that a homeless man known as “Boots” had been found dead in the early hours of Thursday October 5.
Tabletalk’s calls and emails to the Milnerton police went unanswered.
Residents call 3 Justin Street the “house of horrors” and say it is a well-known hangout for gangsters and drug users who pose a threat to residents who pass by when visiting the shops along Koeberg Road
A Brooklyn resident, who did not want to be named, fearing victimisation, said there were new faces visiting the house daily and children as young as 13 had been seen leaving there “disorientated and drugged up,” in the early hours of the morning.
“We, as residents, are even afraid to let our children play outside and fear walking to the shop because we will be the next incident of a robbery case. These people need to leave and these places need to thrown down to the ground,” she said.
The Justin Street properties, including 3, 5 and 7, had been a problem for several years and repeated calls to the City to demolish them had been ignored, said another resident, Fay Vogel.
“How many more bodies will need to be found there before something is done?”
Tabletalk was included in the emails Ms Vogel sent to the City on Thursday October 5, where she asked City officials to visit the area and explain why the City was reluctant to demolish the buildings.
Tabletalk visited 3 Justin Street on Friday October 6 and asked a man standing in the broken doorway about the body that had been found there.
“I wasn’t here, and the people that ‘lam’ (chill) here is not here now,” he said, declining to give his name.
In July, Tabletalk spoke to Lenita Marnaville, who said the City had given her and her brother, Craig Kroné, permission to live at 3 Justin Street until it was demolished (“Call to clear out Brooklyn squatters,” Tabletalk, July 12).
But the City denied that and said the house had been boarded up several times and eviction notices had been served on squatters there.
Calls, emails, and text messages to ward councillor Fabian Ah- Sing went unanswered.
The City did not respond by deadline to questions.