A Hilltop home on Townsend Avenue has been boarded up under a court order this week after a year of police calls, two search warrants, and neighbor complaints about heavy foot traffic and drug sales. Columbus police began tracking the property at 504 Townsend Ave. in 2025, and by the time the shutdown order came down, officers had responded to at least 13 calls at the address over the previous year.
The order to padlock the house came from Columbus City Attorney Zach Klein's Property Action Team, which secured the court action according to WSYX. The unit is a specialized division within the city attorney's office that Klein expanded and rebranded in March 2024 from what had been the Zone Initiative, adding a full-time social worker and a sixth assistant city attorney associated with a new police zone, according to 10TV. Assistant City Attorney Christopher Clark said residents' willingness to provide information was vital to building the case, per the same report.
A Year of Complaints and Two Raids
Neighbors complained repeatedly about illegal drug sales at the property, describing heavy traffic in and out of the home and visitors coming at all hours during June 2026. Callers reported that crack and meth were being sold there that same month, and investigators kept receiving reports that drugs continued to be sold at the home even after detectives warned the property owners about the ongoing activity.
Police conducted a search of the property in March 2026 that turned up more than $2,000 in cash, a semi-automatic gun, and 20 grams of cocaine, the station's report notes. Detectives notified the property owners after that raid, but officers still executed another search warrant at the address in mid-July 2026. Weeks after that second search, officers responded to a report of sexual assault at the property, and police also received a call about a possible suicide attempt at the address in June 2026.
Trash Pulls and Court Filings
Officers collected trash from the property in early July 2026 and discovered suspected narcotic residue and drug paraphernalia inside. The city also has a Property Action Team, according to the City of Columbus. Legal filings described the Townsend Avenue house as a persistent public nuisance under city and state law, citing a pattern of violations stretching back at least a year, and the complaint named several owners, tenants and entities with legal interests in the property.
The city's legal authority in cases like this comes from Ohio law, which lets municipal authorities file civil public nuisance abatement actions against property owners and occupants who allow felonious conduct. Under that law, courts can address public nuisances. These civil cases are adjudicated in the Franklin County Environmental Court, a specialized division created to resolve municipal housing, health and safety violations. A court order in the Townsend Avenue case allows the city to pursue further action if the nuisance returns, and the court approved boarding up the house and bringing it into compliance.
Part of a Broader Pattern Citywide
The Townsend Avenue case follows other recent enforcement actions in the same neighborhood. In July 2026, Klein secured a court order against another Hilltop property that operated an illegal gambling business, an unauthorized shooting range, and multiple severe safety violations, per the City of Columbus. SecUrban Living is also mentioned.
Similar joint efforts have played out elsewhere in the city. Other enforcement actions have also occurred elsewhere in the city. And earlier this month, the team secured the court-ordered closure of the Broadway Court Apartments on the West Side after police found 16 squatters occupying vacant units amid widespread code violations.
Klein said cleaning up nuisance houses is a key strategy to improve public safety, and city officials said efforts like the Townsend Avenue shutdown continue across Columbus to hold property owners accountable and make neighborhoods safer. Between 2018 and early 2024, the city attorney's office filed nearly 250 court cases involving 136 drug houses, 30 illegal after-hours bars and 18 hotels, according to WOSU Public Media. WOSU also reported that the City of Columbus has filed more than 3,500 code-violation cases, secured millions of dollars in fines and objected to 69 liquor-permit renewals. City leaders reported in April 2026 that gun violence citywide had dropped 63% since 2021, ranking Columbus among the top five major U.S. cities for violent crime reduction.
