NEW PORT RICHEY, Fla. — For years, members of the Fraternal Order of Eagles 3153 had a front-row seat to the problems in the Leisure Lane and Van Doren Avenue neighborhood in New Port Richey.
"This was an area people were probably afraid to even come to?" reporter Erik Waxler asked Donna Rao.
"Yeah, even me and I live here. I was afraid to walk," she replied.
Watch report from Erik Waxler
I've reported on the troubles surrounding Leisure Lane and Van Doren Avenue for close to a decade.
The area officially known as Town and Country Villas was plagued by drugs and prostitution, while many homes were falling apart.
"These mobile homes that were in here they weren’t fit for any kind of habitation whatsoever," Kim Bogart, who was then New Port Richey's police chief, said in 2019.
The transformation started with Habitat for Humanity buying properties, tearing down old homes and building new ones. Habitat says its redevelopment of the area has been a transformational effort, with new homes replacing some of the older housing.
Code enforcement also targeted dilapidated properties.
"There's no more homeless. They are gone. And we also had certain women of the evening walking around. Those are gone. And I'm so happy for that," Rao said.
"I used to drive down that road, and I'd see young girls passed out on a sofa with needles stuck in their arm. It was just really, really bad," said Pasco County Commissioner Kathryn Starkey.
She says she's encouraged by the collaboration between the county and the city of New Port Richey.
The two governments have agreed to work together on infrastructure and other neighborhood improvements, including water and sewer, sidewalks, streetlights, road repairs and a park. The city and county previously agreed to an annexation plan that included funding commitments for sewer and neighborhood improvements.
"Those two streets were in Pasco County, and then it was surrounded by the city of New Port Richey. But they wouldn’t annex that in because it was just a bunch of trouble, and so we worked together to clean it up," Starkey said.
Inside the Fraternal Order of Eagles, it's almost time for bingo, but outside, members say they feel safer than they have in years.
"I’m a walker. I like to walk. So I walk these streets. Back 3-4 years ago I would never walk back here. Now I walk all over," said Rocco Tripepi.
The cleanup continues in the community.
On Oct. 5, residents can put unwanted items on the curb for the city to pick up. After that date, code enforcement will begin issuing violations for property maintenance infractions.
Saudi flight from Tampa, secret FBI probe reveal possible Saudi support network for 9/11 hijackers
Twenty years after the Sept. 11 attacks, more than 80,000 records compiled by the Tampa FBI Field Office remain classified. Newly declassified documents are pointing to a possible secret Saudi support network for the hijackers. Soon after the attacks, the FBI uncovered that 15 of the 19 hijackers were from Saudi Arabia.
