Really, it almost seems impossible that the lights at Tymber Skan weren't shut off long ago. Units that aren't boarded up are ransacked. Everything from window frames to light fixtures to appliances to wiring has been stripped from them, and they sit wide open. Several of them have been set on fire, and their scorched hulls are a distressing reminder that these old wooden structures are highly flammable.
The common areas are piled with old furniture and broken glass. The grass hasn't been cut in forever, so every open space is choked with weeds and vines. Fasnacht says prostitutes work out of some of the units.
And yet there are also some single moms, families and old ladies here, too.
"When you drive through there and see kids peering through broken glass, it just almost brings you to your knees," code enforcement's Bob Spivey says. "It's something none of us should have to see, and people shouldn't have to live in those conditions."
And in a perverse turn of logic, some county officials hope that turning off the water might be the best thing that could happen to some of the people stuck here.
"I think there are probably people here who are looking for a way out," says Orange County Family Services' Dianne Arnold. She says the county is offering to pay first month's rent and a security deposit for Tymber Skan residents who need relocation assistance. "Sometimes out of bad things come things that are maybe good results. There might be people there who need opportunity. They might need the upfront money to get into better [housing] or better schools for their children."
But for the homeowners who actually own their units and who want to stay, there just aren't very many acceptable options. Do they stay and hope that things don't get even worse when the water gets turned off? Do they wait to see what Pinkston brings to the table? Do they just walk away?
"We would like to stay," McIntosh says. "This is what we call home. What if somebody came to your home and set up shop and just took hold and didn't even ask our opinion about anything and says that's just the way it is? You can't do people like this. People need to take heed. If this happens to this neighborhood, it can happen to the next."
For now, everyone's waiting to see what happens when the water is shut off to sections one and three. Spivey says he worries for the homeowners – the legitimate ones who've stuck it out all this time – but the county has little standing to intervene any more than it already has.
"That is one of the worst aspects," Spivey says. "People that put their life savings into a place to live – people that have lived there since the 1970s – will be without water, without power. What's going to happen to them?"
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