WASHINGTON - A D.C. church is under fire for its efforts to avoid paying taxes. Now, some residents in the District's Shaw neighborhood are calling the Shiloh Baptist church downright shady.

Shiloh Baptist stands tall in Shaw, but instead of being a pillar of the community, some of its neighbors consider it a pain.

In the shadow of the towering Shiloh Baptist church sit seven of its down-at-heel properties. Owners of the vacant buildings are supposed to pay much higher real estate taxes, but not Shiloh.

"It's sheisty is what it is," said Danielle Boudreaux, a D.C. resident. "It is sheisty -- it doesn't go along with what I think the core values of a church should be."

The District Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs confirms Shiloh avoided paying tens of thousands of dollars in penalty taxes on its vacant properties. It mowed the grass around a couple of the buildings and took out permits for renovations.

The city believed the church was rehabbing the structures so it took the buildings off the roster of vacant properties.

One official estimates that by getting the city to change the buildings designation as vacant, Shiloh saved more than $100,000.

"That seems a little shady. You can put your own words on this," said Charles Randolph, a Shiloh Baptist employee.

Joseph Ouyang has lived a door down from one of the vacant buildings for five years. "It's not true and it is not right," Ouyang said.

Some in the Shaw neighborhood are less concerned with Shiloh's apparent shenanigans than with its ongoing reluctance to actually fix or sell its properties.

"This is sort of a third-world situation here right next to my house," said D.C. resident John McCahill. "I would love for it to be changed."

A representative from the D.C. Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs did tell ABC 7/NewsChannel 8 that the city has changed the status of Shiloh's properties back to vacant, but would not say whether the city would try to recoup its lost tax revenue.

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