‘Charlotte County has many abandoned houses,” William Funk wrote me. “They are in all kinds of neighborhoods. We see them when we are out and about. What a terrible waste.”

Unfortunately, one of the neighborhoods is his. The home next to the 72-year-old’s property was abandoned last year. Funk said the yard was “full of garbage and trash and dog feces.” Additionally, the pool water was stagnating and there was a mosquito problem.