BUFFALO, NY -- Buffalo is gearing up for a major crackdown on the worst slumlords in the Ellicott District. 

The city is launching Operation Slumlord, an initiative aimed at getting absentee landlords to take care of their neglected properties.

"We've been here for well over 30 years, maybe longer than that. My great-grandparents bought the house on Mulberry, which in turn influenced my grandparents to buy the house on Peach Street," said Brandi Barrett.

Barrett says things began to go down hill when the house next door changed hands about ten years ago. Now the house sits vacant and in disrepair.      

"There's trash, there's overgrown trees and leaves to the point we sometimes can't open our windows on that side of the house because it's so nasty and the allergies and pollution that you can get from breathing that stuff in. It's sad because we take great care in our home."     

The house is just the tip of the iceberg in Buffalo, where there are hundreds of neglected homes and commercial properties owned by absentee landlords

"We're talking about people who simply purchase these properties and then do nothing to improve them after they have sucked every dime out of them that they can," said Common Council President Darius Pridgen.

The Buffalo Common Council passed an initiative aimed at addressing absentee landlords in the Ellicott District called Operation Slumlord.      

Mayor Brown says there's also legislation is Albany that would add code violations and fines onto the tax bills of absentee landlords.

"We should be able to take those properties from those absentee landlords, from those slumlords, from those people who are holding down the quality of life in our city," said Mayor Byron Brown.

Pridgen says they'll be working with residents and the Department of Inspections to identify the neglected properties. The initiative starts next week.