Wilmington pastor upset with mistreatment of church, nearby property

WILMINGTON, NC (WWAY) — A Wilmington pastor says two abandoned houses next to his church are causing problems, forcing him to turn to the city for help.

Frank Hackworth is the pastor at Faith Baptist Church on Shipyard Boulevard in Wilmington. He says people are leaving trash, tires, shopping carts and more in front of the houses.

Recently, one of the houses caught on fire  and Hackworth believes people have been living in the house and doing drugs.

“They were over there possibly doing some drugs and some smoke and stuff that the place caught on fire because of that,” Hackworth said.

He claims they’ve been using resources from the church and Hackworth is upset about it.

“They have been running electric chords over to the place over there so they’d have electricity so they could possibly watch TV or whatever they want to do,” Hackworth said. “Also, the water, they’ve been running water hoses over there from our place here for quite some time.”

Faith Baptist Church (Photo: WWAY)

He said he reached out to the city and Wilmington Code Enforcement is aware of what is going on.

“We recognize that that is a problem and when one property like that becomes a magnet for bad behavior and nuisance it just kind of grows,” Wilmington city spokesperson Dylan Lee said.

Now the city is looking to get inspectors in the home to possibly board it up. Hackworth says he reached out to the property owner, who told him he didn’t know this was happening because he is in the islands and isn’t in Wilmington. The owner told him he will be back in a couple of months to address the issue.