Residents fed up with trash-filled property in Lawndale: 'I want them to get this out of here'
The property is blanketed with what the city calls "junk, trash and other debris" in a civil suit against the owner.
LAWNDALE, Calif. (KABC) -- About the only thing growing faster than the mounds of junk in a Lawndale front yard are the frustrations growing amid neighbors.
The property at the corner of Mansel and West 156th streets is blanketed with what the city calls "junk, trash and other debris" in a civil suit against the owner. Neighbors say the owner has been collecting junk and storing it in her yard for several years.
"Just started piling up," said Eddie Trujillo, who's lived next door to the lot for 53 years. "I'm very, very frustrated."
Trujillo thinks it's been about four years since the junk started collecting at his neighbor's house and says snakes and other pests have since started coming onto the property he shares with his mother.
"I want them to get this out of here because I'm worried about my mother. My mother is 80 years old," he told Eyewitness News.
Trujillo is not alone. Several other neighbors have watched the trash pile up and feel helpless when it comes to solving the problem.
"This is terrible," said Mario Carrillo, who has lived across the street from the home for the past 45 years.
Carrillo says he's complained to the city, but says nothing's been done to clean it up.
"I reported to the city four times," he said. "I went there, I talked with the guy who said, 'Yeah. We got it, we got it. Don't worry about it, we're working on it.'"
Lawndale officials have been aware of the problem house for years, but City Manager Sean Moore says clearing a property like that is a long legal process, one the city began back in 2022.
"Staff went out and initiated code procedures on the property and then we exhausted those procedures and now we've turned it over to the city attorney's office for civil litigation," Moore said.
The city's lawsuit describes a court-ordered inspection where the city worker was barely able to enter the house because of all the junk, and was only able to go 10 feet inside.
We wanted to speak with the woman who lives at the property, but we were unable to reach any of the doors on the home because of all the junk surrounding the house. A phone call to the number associated with the home's address went unanswered and would not take any voicemails.
Lawndale officials say they have to wait for a legal decision in the civil case so they can move forward with clean up.
