Sylmar RV lot owner finally confronted; LA Mayor Bass vows to tackle city's growing camper issue
SYLMAR, LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- It's been 10 days since Eyewitness News broke the story on the over 20 RVs on one property in Sylmar and the hazardous conditions inside.
On Monday, frustrated neighbors voiced their anger at a neighborhood meeting and ABC7 confronted the owner, Cruz Florian Godoy, who responded: "Hey, this is a private property. You shouldn't be filming here. I own this place."
Godoy has been charged with two misdemeanors: parking of RVs and maintenance of trash.
Eyewitness News reporter Josh Haskell asked "Are you Cruz?" Who responded, "Yeah."
Then, Godoy was asked if she would like to provide an interview, but she turned around and went inside her home.
Neighbors showed us video of what they say is human waste pouring into the streets and into their yards.
The Sylmar neighborhood council held a community meeting Monday night where residents voiced their frustration after two years of dealing with the nightmare.
"We've been getting sick. The smell, every day, when my husband goes to work it is the smell," said Maria Macias, a Sylmar homeowner at the meeting.
Macias continued her emotionally plea after the meeting as well.
"Asking and showing video of the feces going through my property my son has gotten sick," she said.
The president of the Sylmar Neighborhood Council said that there is a petition with more than 100 signatures.
"There's a petition of 120 signatures, but nothing has been done since. We have to have compassion for those living in these hazardous conditions, but also those living next to it," said Kurt Cabrera-Miller.
On Monday, we asked Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass about what she's doing to address the complaints in Sylmar and the growing issue of RV homelessness. She said a task force is being launched to study the issue.
"RVs is one of the issues we need to tackle now, and by the way, just setting up a task force doesn't mean you don't act and you just study. You can act and study and figure it out because some of the problems we know about, such as, we don't know who owns these," said Bass.
When asked about Sylmar specifically, the mayor said the city is working to identify a location for safe parking where the RVs can go so they're not in a neighborhood. On Monday, Mayor Bass updated her state of emergency on housing and homelessness to expedite resources to address the crisis, which she said her administration has made progress on, but that there's much more work to do.
Hector Rivera who lives a block from the RV lot in Sylmar says moving the RVs to another place won't solve the problem.
"There's children involved here and raw sewage, and to me, that's not safe for anybody. The owner owns the RVs. The city doesn't own the RVs, and in my opinion, it's just like moving one problem to another neighborhood. Plain and simple. You move one bad apple to another batch and it's still a bad apple," said Rivera.
Neighbors tell Eyewitness News the RVs are rented out at $500 dollars a month and up.
The property is located right on the border of Sylmar which is in the city of Los Angeles and the city of San Fernando.
"Hopefully, this time somebody helps us because it's been two years. I cannot. I don't have peace in my own house," said Macias.
