SPRINGFIELD — The putrid smell hits like a jackhammer as you approach the red, ramshackle home at 284 Denver St.
Recently condemned by the city as uninhabitable after the property changed hands, the scene inside is a hoarding hell where two tenants have lived for more than eight years. Piles of belongings and trash blanket the floors of every room. The urine stench is stifling, even after a city animal shelter carted away dozens of filthy, malnourished and sick dogs. Feces are pressed into the floorboards, and swarms of flies are everywhere.
