Eyewitness News first reported on the RV encampment issue in the East Gardena and West Rancho Dominguez area two years ago.
"It's always been a wonderful place to work until recently in the last several years where the county has just let this place go to hell," local business owner Barry Brucker said.
On some blocks, the homeless situation has improved. RVs that were cleared by the county have not returned and their occupants moved indoors.
But in a RV wasteland, new encampments form on different blocks and business owners say those encampments have fueled a rise in illegal dumping and copper theft.
"I just recently had about $100,000 worth of copper, piping tubes and all of my electrical was stripped. I had no water and no electric. They cut it at the power pole, and they literally trashed the inside over a weekend."
Brucker has operated an ink manufacturing business on Avalon Boulevard between East Rosecrans Avenue and East Compton Boulevard. But after the piping and wiring inside his business was torn apart and stolen, he's packing up and moving.
Brucker says he's reached out to L.A. County Supervisor Holly Mitchell for months, but the problems have only gotten worse. The L.A. County Sheriff's Department has told Brucker their hands are tied - something Mitchell says isn't true.
"Copper theft is a massive problem, and we don't know if it's the unhoused stealing copper," Mitchell said. "Copper theft is an issue that every level of government is dealing with. Am I satisfied? No. Do I feel we have made significant progress? Absolutely. We have the first safe parking pilot in the county."
That pilot program allows RV owners to park in a lot owned by the county for up to six months as they wait for permanent housing.
The problem is the RVs must be operable and owners must have proof of ownership, two things that are hard to find in East Gardena-West Rancho Dominguez. It's the end of the line for RVs, boats, trailers and cars.
Michael West, who has owned a clothing company in East Gardena for six years, says the RV encampments have severely impacted his business and his employees don't want to come into the office.
"They've tapped into our gas line. They've tapped into our electrical line. They've tapped into the water line here," West said. "There are fires here, too. It's a hazard, it's dangerous."
Right outside West's business, Jennifer Munoz and her three kids call a trailer home.
"I want to get out of here. I want something safe for my kids," Munoz said.
Munoz says she's applied for housing and desperately wants to leave the streets, but there's too many people in need and not enough housing.
"I don't have housing. I don't have nothing," Munoz said. "Only promise and promise and promise. I'm here for five years."
Mitchell said the solution for homelessness is housing.
"We are dealing with those issues by working in collaboration with the sheriff. If illegal activity is happening, the sheriff's are in power to go in and manage that," Mitchell said. "We work with the fire department for the fires. We know that many of the van lords, as we know them to be, set fires to the RVs if people haven't paid their rent on time.
"We're working with the fire department and their arson units. We're working with animal control. We have increased and actually established trash pickup."
The trash issue has improved. Eyewitness News observed more dumpsters and cleaner streets compared to previous visits, but the living conditions give off the impression of lawlessness.
Illegal dumping continues to be a huge problem in East Gardena-West Rancho Dominguez.
But work continues for outreach workers, deputies and elected officials - just slower than anyone would like.
"This problem didn't happen overnight," Mitchell said. "The fact that we have 70,000 people living on our streets every night, and unfortunately we're not going to be able to solve it overnight."