Next door, nearly knee-high grass leads to a boarded-up window.

No one lives in this house owned by Deutsche Bank. On the other side, Williams' neighbor is another bank.

Houses on Montgomery Avenue used to sell for $600,000; now, they might fetch $200,000.

"I think half the houses on this block are empty," Williams said. "It's like living in a ghost town."

Squatters have lived in some; one that caught fire in October remains boarded up.

In the East Bay, banks own more than 10,000 houses, and more than 20,000 are in the foreclosure process, according to RealtyTrac.com.

Cities in east and west Contra Costa County have the most bank-owned and foreclosed homes per capita, followed by Concord and Martinez. In Alameda County, Hayward and Emeryville have similarly high per-capita numbers.

Not all bank-owned houses are vacant; previous owners, who are now tenants, and new renters occupy some.

In addition, houses can end up vacant for other reasons. Bonnie Glennon, a Realtor with J. Rockcliff, said she had clients who made a short sale offer on a Dublin house in October. It was accepted this month; the house sat vacant for seven months.

Some of the empty houses attract trouble.

Squatters and gang members have taken over many of the vacant properties in Richmond, said Tim Higares, a code enforcement manager. Workers sent in to clean the houses find them stripped of copper wire and toilets, littered with condoms and needles, and stained with feces and urine.

Higares said Richmond tries to clean and board up empty houses, but the sheer volume overwhelms the city.

"Every time we think we gain a little headway in this crisis, a new challenge presents itself," he said. "Really, what we're doing is putting a Band-Aid on a bigger issue. "... The banks aren't stepping up to the plate and selling these properties and stabilizing the communities."

Many times the properties are a mess before banks even take ownership, leaving the banks to do the heavy lifting of cleanup, said Chuck Burks of the Southwest Servicing Group, a company that rehabilitates bank-owned properties for banks.

"I think they really are doing the best they can," Burks said. "The previous owners just didn't care any more, and so they leave (their houses) in pretty bad shape."

It has taken banks some time to adjust to the explosion in the number of properties they own, he said.

"I don't think the banks are in the business of being property managers," he said. "They're bankers."

Squatters can be quite creative in finding ways to stay in abandoned houses, Burks said.

Richmond neighbors say an empty Craftsman-style house in the 1700 block of Roosevelt Avenue had become a haven for the homeless. Police rousted the squatters half a dozen times over seven months, said Camille Shortridge, who lives around the corner on 17th Street.

"As soon as the police would leave, it wouldn't be an hour before they'd be back," she said. "They go around the neighborhood from house to house. They basically homestead it and take it over."

Earlier this month, city workers hauled out truckloads of furniture and personal belongings, Shortridge said. But despite the padlocks and neatly painted plywood covering the doors and windows, people still are trying to get in, she said.

Shortridge also blames the banks.

"I feel the way the banks are leaving them it's creating an eyesore, which draws the people in. I think the banks should be fined if they aren't keeping it up," she said.

In Concord, many of the houses where Williams lives on Montgomery Avenue have neatly manicured lawns; one has a sale-pending sign.

Five houses on the block are owned by banks; three more are in foreclosure. Some obviously are empty. One stands out with its collapsed roof and unpainted plywood covering the garage and front doors. Weeds grow around the trash in the front yard.

It burned in October after its residents left; the firefighters' report said it appeared that squatters had been there. A paper taped to the smoke-stained window warns against unauthorized entry.

In 2005, that house sold for $570,000. It is up for auction June 1.

In another house down the street, squatters lived for about seven months before getting kicked out, neighbor Emil Ramirez said. Ten or 15 people stayed there, he said. "It's been pretty bad around here," said Ramirez, who lives one vacant house away from Williams. "Really bad."

In Antioch, police have been called to vacant houses for teens partying, squatters, Craigslist scams and burglaries, police Sgt. Diane Aguinaga said. At one house, squatters actually activated PG&E service, she added.

Cities do what they can, with inspectors, fines, liens, and their own maintenance workers.

Richmond fines banks $1,000 per day for unkempt properties. Hayward adds the cost of inspections and repairs to the properties' tax bills. Concord finds and bills the banks or owners.

Last year, Hayward sent an inspector to each of its approximately 1,800 homes in foreclosure, said Stacey Sorensen, the city's neighborhood partnership manager. About 300 of them had code violations, which consisted mostly of overgrown weeds. Sometimes it was broken windows, or graffiti, or trash.

The city locks up houses and replaces broken glass, Sorensen said, and quick action almost always keeps squatters out.

Concord deals with violations at about 10 vacant houses per month — usually just weeds, said Margaret Hernandez, the city's neighborhood services manager. About five houses a year are a more serious mess, often reflecting departing residents' anger, she said.

"They push all their junk and debris (into the yard) and leave it there," she said.

These extra demands on cities come as city budgets are shrinking. As banks gradually sell these houses, local governments' property tax revenue will continue to drop, because the tax assessments do not fall from their bubble-inflated price until the bank sells the house. So, cities and school districts may have to make more cuts in the coming years.

Sometimes, however, banks make improvements on their own.

On Montgomery Avenue in Concord, the house where squatters lived for months has been cleaned up. The driveway has been replaced with decorative pavers. The lawn is lush and neatly trimmed.

Neighbors can thank the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation.

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