Martin St. home not demolished after tree fall killed resident

• In August of 2023, a tree fell on a home on Martin Street, killing 84-year-old Vernita Payne.
• The home was red tagged shortly after, meaning it was deemed unsafe.
• Watch video above to see how neighbors feel about the home not being demolished yet.

Councilman Ryan Kost said "beat up" may be an understatement when it comes to describing a home on Martin Street. It’s been almost a year since a tree fell on the home, killing 84 year old Vernita Payne.

“She was a neighbor for 50 plus years for many people who lived in this neighborhood,” Kost said.

A pile of debris is what’s left of the home and it was red tagged shortly after, leaving residents puzzled on why it has not been demolished. especially given the safety risks they say it brings to the neighborhood.

“We've run several kids out there because I guess they wanted to hangout there and see but we have to tell them its not safe,” said neighbor Maria Castillo.

The demolition hold-up is a result of the city's demo board tabling it.

“It was tabled because one of the family members said they wanted to rebuild this house but you could see Clearly that there is no rebuild in it,” Kost said.

But Payne’s daughter Shawn Edwards said she wants the home demolished.

“Look at this house? Why would we wanna save this house? We want it torn down,” Edwards said.

Kost said situations like this happen far too often in Lansing, especially with red tagged home, which is why a change has been made on the city level, preventing the demo board from tabling demolition.