BOSTON -- Five children were removed from a Hyde Park home on Thursday after they were found living in filthy conditions without their parents.

Kids Taken From Filthy Home

The children are now in state custody, and the A Street home has been boarded up and condemned.

"Filth. Filthy. It is just sad that the little kids have to suffer like that," homeowner Ralph Corrado said.

Corrado said he never knew that the children were living in the house that he rented to their grandmother six years ago. Corrado said he told the tenants a month ago to cleanup the home.

"We checked it two weeks ago -- the maintenance man I have here. Everything looked fine, he said," Corrado said.

But when Boston police entered the house on Thursday night they said they found human waste, a bucket of urine, bedbugs and trash on the floor.

"They found five children all under 9 years old in very poor conditions," Boston Police Deputy Superintendent John Dailey said.

Police told NewsCenter 5 that they found feces on the floors, walls and children. On Thursday night, the parents were not home, but a 15-year-old was babysitting. Police said they were first called to the home Thursday night after a report of gunshots which turned out to be the 15-year-old setting off firecrackers.

"They are poor and they get money from Section 8 and welfare and this and that," said neighbor Rich Steverman.

To qualify for Section 8 housing, inspectors must periodically make home visits. Inspectors visited the property in November and December 2007, but in their reports there is no mention the squalor that police found Thursday night.

"Section 8, they come in, they look at it, and whatever they want fixed, minor things, whatever they want fixed, I fix it. That's it," Corrado said.

The owner allowed Animal Control into the home on Friday and they found a malnourished cat and a litter of kittens in a third-floor closet.

The Department of Social Services has custody of the children.

"We're investigating and have the children in our custody," Richard Nagle of DSS said. "We haven't been involved with the family before."

No charges have been filed.