I can explain why some people who find themselves in dire times might not be able to maintain their houses as well as their neighbors might like.

Set the scene: So life is good, you and your wife have good jobs and kids are happy. Nice little house with a well maintained yard. You are however, slightly overextended on finances and are spending a little too much every month on car payments and credit cards. So you're pretty much living week to week but still living comfortably because you both have decently paying jobs.

Then say... you get into an accident. Or you find that you have a health condition. You have months of rehab and/or surgery ahead of you. All of a sudden you can't work, so you're down to a single income supporting your whole family. Your savings carries you for awhile but eventually all of your safety nets are gone and you find yourself having to forfeit your cars, having to apply for food stamps to feed the family etc. You start to really see what being broke is like. See, when you're down on your luck, that's when shit starts breaking. Your washing machine. Your hot water heater. The one good car you have. Your lawn mower. Damn it, there's a part for your lawnmower that you need but it costs 70 bucks and you won't have that much extra cash until next month. If then. Lawn mowers are expensive, even used ones are 100++ dollars. Can't use a push mower because you're hurt/sick. Having someone else maintain your lawn can be even more expensive. It's not like the old days when kids would do it for a tenner. So a few weeks go by and you're just embarrassed as hell. Don't even want to go outside because your yard looks like shit. Oh, and you couldn't pay the damn trash pickup payment this month so they didn't empty your cans this week. Great.

You're hurt/sick. You're broke, hungry, sad, angry, depressed and then now some fuckin Karen is leaving notes on your door telling you that "Bless your heart we know you're going through a rough time but we thought you might do something about your yard? We have friends coming over for a family reunion and it's getting to be an eyesore. We can give you the number for our lawn guy if you need! TYIA!" Great. Fucking great. Thanks lady, if I could I would. FML.

Some people are just lazy fucks. Sometimes though, especially if it happens suddenly after they normally keep their yard nice, it might be someone going through a rough patch in life.