Hillsborough property owners review 2025 delinquent-liens list, hear update on Fort Smith cemeteries and rising encampments

Property Owners of Hillsborough members met to approve routine minutes, elect a chair and hear a report from neighborhood services on delinquent property liens, private cemetery maintenance and an increase in homeless encampments and vacant-structure squatting.

Neighborhood services staff summarized the preliminary 2025 delinquent-liens list, saying the city currently shows 399 liens on the preliminary list and that staff will verify legacy entries after migrating records into a new software platform called CityView. Staff said 186 property owners on the list together include 69 repeat offenders; the department reported a preliminary total liens amount that staff read aloud as a figure that was unclear in the record and will be verified during the data-cleanup process. Staff said past years’ collections and certifications reduced lien totals after payments and noted that last year the department certified 190 liens, reducing the balance to about $133,364.33.

The presentation explained the CityView migration has produced “growing pains” because some legacy liens did not import correctly. Staff said entries flagged “not in CityView” must be cross-checked against legacy records and corrected before certification.

Staff described several categories of cases on the draft list: repeated small monthly payments on very old cleanings (one property has reportedly been paying $10 per month since early 2013), properties with payments under active agreement, and cases where the city may move forward with certification and collection. Staff said the usual practice is to refrain from enforcement when a property owner is making regular monthly payments.

Cemetery maintenance and liens

Staff briefed the membership on Fort Smith-area cemeteries—Roselawn, Holy Cross and Forest Park—owned and operated by Fort Smith Cemetery Incorporated, a private incorporated entity. Neighborhood services said the city abated overgrown conditions at those cemeteries in 2023 and 2024, then placed liens to document the use of public funds for abatement. The department said the cemetery board has requested that the city take on ongoing maintenance costs for those privately owned cemeteries, and that the cemetery board will present its request to the board of directors the night after this meeting.

Staff said the city paid invoices for April and May 2024, totaling about $24,000, and that total abatement-related expenditures for 2023–2024 are in the “140–150 thousand dollar” range (staff read approximate numbers during the meeting). Staff said Fort Smith Cemetery Incorporated has an endowment or trust reportedly about $600,000, but that current governance and state rules limit access to interest earned; a legislative change has been proposed in the past to allow broader access to funds but had not passed at the time of the meeting. Staff said the city followed its normal abatement and lien process—sending certified notices, contracting with abatement vendors (King Irrigation was named) and recording liens so that the expenditures have an auditable paper trail. Staff said the board can choose to waive liens later but that the liens remain on the preliminary 2025 list until any official board action removes them.

Homeless encampments, vacant structures and squatting

Neighborhood services reported a sharp increase in homeless encampments and more complex encampment sites in 2025 compared with 2023–2024. Staff said the department dealt with 26 encampments in 2023, 29 in 2024 and about 40 so far in 2025, with roughly 35 cleared and five active at the time of the report. Staff described larger, more organized encampments with improvised shelters, solar panels and battery chargers, and said one site near Wheeler Avenue reportedly held about 30 people.

Staff said many people inhabiting encampments appear to be transient, arriving from other states and regions; they described outreach to nonprofit providers including Hope Campus and Next Step Dayrooms and said many people decline referral offers. The department said it works with property owners (including private owners and the railroad on federally controlled land) to post warnings, give 7–14 days’ notice on larger encampments, and, when necessary, abate sites and bill property owners. Staff said repeated abatement work on privately owned cemeteries and other properties led the city to place liens to document city spending.

The report also described rising problems with vacant structures being occupied and vandalized. Staff cited the former Goodyear/Wingfoot building at 1000 South 20th Street and a former medical office building at 416 North D Street (owned by Baptist Health) as examples of damage from illegal entry and squatting. Staff said some vacant structures have required repeated boarding and security work; the city can seek court orders of entry with police, clear structures, board them and, under the property maintenance code, a structure may be boarded for up to one year before the city requires it to be returned to a habitable condition or proceed to demolition.

Staff noted a recent state law change: House Bill 1049, enacted as Act 238, which criminalizes unlawful squatting in Arkansas and provides new misdemeanor and felony penalties for repeated offenses. Staff said the law gives enforcement officers another tool to address squatters and encampment cases and that the city uses notices that cite state law when posting encampments and vacant-structure warnings.

Department workload and results

Neighborhood services described a larger enforcement workload since 2023. Staff said the department doubled targeted enforcement in certain neighborhoods through a grid-based approach: among three target areas, about 90 structures were brought into compliance and 12 cases remained open at the time of reporting. The department said its annual abatement budget was increased by the city from about $150,000 to $300,000 to cover additional contractor and demolition costs; staff reported five demolitions so far in the current year and projected several more.

Votes at a glance

- Approval of minutes from the previous meeting: motion to accept as presented; passed by voice vote. (Mover/second not specified in the record.) - Election of chair: membership elected Justin Sparrow as chair by voice vote. (Tally not recorded by name; vote passed.) - Scheduling of appeals hearings: motion passed to hold appeals meetings on September 4 and September 10; motion and second were recorded and the vote carried.

What’s next

Staff said they will complete verification of the CityView data import, finalize the 2025 lien roll for certification, and monitor the Fort Smith Cemetery Incorporated board’s request to the board of directors for continued city-funded maintenance. Staff also said they will continue enforcement actions on large encampments, coordinate with police on high-volume sites and pursue boarding or demolition where court orders and code permit.

At the end of the meeting members asked how appeal materials should be prepared; staff said appeals hearings typically begin at 6:00 p.m. and asked whether members wanted any additional documents included in the appeals packet.