Isolated on a sliding hillside in Greenfield, the 10 homes facing Ivondale Street merit no investment. No one is living in four of them, according to a resident.

Yet in late May, the Bureau of Building Inspection cited property owners there for code violations, citations that would require them to sink money into new chimneys, roofs and porches. One case already made it to Housing Court.

Julia Supira, who has dementia and lives in a nursing home and who has not lived in her Ivondale property for almost 20 years, was fined $5,000 in Housing Court on Wednesday. She was represented by her daughter, who could not be reached for comment.

"Most of these cases take months," said District 5 Councilman Doug Shields. "This one went from freezer to oven to table so fast it makes your head spin." He said a $5,000 fine against "a woman who has no capacity to defend herself is unconscionable."

Mr. Shields is livid that the city would burden residents with citations when they have lived in the middle of two sliding hillsides with no city remediation "for as long as I've worked here," 17 years, he wrote in an e-mail. "I also take note that on numerous occasions ... it has taken months and sometimes years to get BBI to take to court cited, blighted properties owned by absentee landlords or owners who displayed a deliberate indifference to housing codes."

But it was his resolution in May, which passed council unanimously, that resulted in the citations.

"The councilman asked for a survey of the street," said Sergei Matveiev, chief of the Bureau of Building Inspection. The survey was to get "an understanding of which properties are in a landslide zone, which are vacant or abandoned, who owns what. We ran the gamut, identified several characteristics we wanted to map." He said several homes are tax delinquent and that none are condemned.

"In doing the survey, we were finding violations along the street," he said. "Our job is to cite what we see. I understand that there's a problem structurally with the street, but that's the [purview of] the Department of Public Works."

Along Ivondale, one hillside threatens the homes from behind. A hillside that plunges down from the roadbed is taking the narrow ribbon of damaged pavement with it. Resident Nina Kopa described it as "like the sticks," ignored by the city's snowplows and repair crews.

Mr. Shields said his resolution was intended to find "a solution for the people of Ivondale, to buy them out or remediate the landslide."

"Why on God's green grass would you cite someone to fix his chimney and roof when the property has no value?" he asked. "The neighborhood sent up a flare saying 'please come help us,' and that's how the city is helping."

Ms. Supira's vacant home was the scene of an alleged sexual assault in May.

During the May 13 City Council meeting, Public Works Director Guy Costa said the city either "will purchase and demolish the houses, or fix the road."

Mr. Matveiev said Wednesday that "ultimately [Ms. Supira's] property will be referred to our demolition department more than likely because of the fact it seems to be the best solution we have. The property is obviously undesirable by everybody. The daughter said she was unable to sell it.

"We had cited the property prior to the assault for dangerous conditions. We referred it to public works for the building to be sealed. It was sealed, but someone broke in and unsealed that building.

"Everything about this situation is sad."