Hello,

I have a townhome and our association has a wooden fence between our property and the neighboring public housing development. The problem is that the kids in the public housing go "through" our fence to get to the next street over. We have left an opening on one end for them, but they continue to break boards and destroy the fence to get through instead of walking to the other end.

We approached the housing authority to try and see if they would share the cost of repairing the fence....since we have put so much money in repairing it over the years. They wouldn't even consider it. Their view is that...it's our fence; therefore it's our responsibility to fix it. They said that we should just call the police if we see the kids breaking the fence. We do...but by the time the police get there (20 minutes), the kids have run off.

Is there anything we can do to force the housing authority to share the cost of repairing this fence?

Thanks in advance.

Go after the parents of the kids. The kids did the damage, not the housing authority.

(Is "housing authority" right? Here, that phrase means the low income controlled-rent and subsidized housing administration agency.)

Yes, it is a low income subsidized housing project.

The problem is that we don't know which parents these kids belong to. The kids don't stay around for us to find out....they run off.

The only option that leaves us is to try and get the authority to do something.

Follow them.

Or get the real authorities involved - the police. It's mischievous damage.