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In another life, Meridian’s Gena Leonard might’ve labored as a foreman on a construction site.

“You can’t shake a house time after time, day after day and not have some kind of damage,” Gena said.

But in this existence, she’s just stuck living next to one (the site and not the foreman).

“The whole house shakes,” she said.

Gena and her husband Robert moved into a home in the Bear Creek subdivision in Meridian in September. They redid the house from the inside, recaulking, repainting and building a new shower before bringing in a home inspector.

“And the things we’re seeing now were not on his report,” Gena said.

Mostly cracks. In the walls, countertops and foundation. We found similar damage in 10 or so homes on the Leonard’s street. The owners of those homes all blamed the construction of the Walmart going on in their backyards—a Walmart, they say, is not what the city promised.

“I think the city really let the people of Meridian down and I think they know it,” Lori McBride said.

Lori’s parents live on the impacted block. She attended city council meetings where she says Meridian promised a Walmart that closed at 11 p.m. with special lights that dimmed after closing and a noise-abatement wall to protect the Bear Creek subdivision.

“It’s not like that at all,” Lori said.

Instead, the Bear Creek homeowners say, crews continue to build a store with a 24-hour pharmacy and no signs of a wall to shelter homes like the Leonards.

“Can you imagine the noise we’re going to have to put up with 24 hours a day?” Gena said.

Homeowners, contractors, city officials and insurance companies plan to meet in the Meridian mayor’s office Wednesday morning. But without a satisfactory outcome, Gena says she and other homeowners plan to pursue a class-action lawsuit.

Lori said she made phone calls and sent letters to the city, but hasn’t received a single response. Meridian did not respond to On Your Side’s phone calls Monday afternoon.