NASHVILLE, Tenn. -- There's a new blight showing up in quite a few middle Tennessee neighborhoods.

Related: Video | Click here for a list of the toxic homes.

Some homes that look like any other on the street are toxic.

The I-Team revealed what could be a no-win situation for the state, law enforcement and homeowners.

Despite the peeling paint and rotting wood, all Mary Murray wants is to go home, she said.

“It's heart-wrenching. It's really heart-wrenching,” she said.

In fact, she said she would settle on just going inside.

But no one's allowed inside. Her family home, police and the state said, is toxic.

“This is my mother's home. I hate that all this has happened,” she said.

Yellow and red signs posted on homes show they are under quarantine because of the dangerous chemicals inside.

"It's toxic. Toxic chemicals is all it is,” Franklin County Sheriff’s Department Capt. Danny Warren.

Some have sat empty for nearly two years and have never been cleaned up, becoming the abandoned homes of the new century.

Alan Marston lives next to a toxic home.

“They're a mess. I don't think there's anything else to say,” he said.

The toxic homes are the decaying legacy of the methamphetamine epidemic.

Police said meth was manufactured inside the homes -- ruining walls, furniture and carpets.

The homes were quarantined until owners could hire a certified cleaning crew.

But a Channel 4 News investigation revealed, in most cases, that isn't happening.

“They're going to be empty for a long time, too,” Marston said.

There are now 74 uncleaned toxic homes vacant in Henry, Humphreys, Lincoln and Putnam counties and nine toxic homes in Franklin County.

So, if residents want to know how these cracked and broken homes are impacting people in middle Tennessee, all they have to do is go to Decherd and head to Main Street to find two toxic homes.

Marston's family lives next door.

“It decreases the value of the neighborhood all around here,” he said.

Police also said they see a safety risk. One home was found with the door open.

“If you've got kids in the neighborhood and (they) try to play in them, it's just a sad thing,” Warren said.

Many property owners aren't paying and the state won't take the matter on, and police said they are afraid they are becoming desperate.

"These are private properties that we're talking about, and the responsibility about cleaning it up rests with those property owners,” said Tisha Calabrese of the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation.

Across the midstate, firefighters are reporting quarantined homes mysteriously burning down.

“We've had some houses just burn. Yes,” Warren said. “The fire department couldn't determine a cause (or) origin of fires."

Murray’s brother is charged with making meth in her family's home.

They recently got an estimate to clean it up.

She said the cost was"between $15,000 and $20,000."

State records show only 17 toxic homes have been cleaned since 2005.

Click here for a list of the toxic homes.