Some South LA Residents Fed Up With Piles Of Trash Strewn All Over Their Neighborhood

SOUTH LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Some South Los Angeles residents said they are fed up with the growing piles of trash that litters their neighborhood.

Ashley Allen documented on Facebook the garbage that is strewn all over the streets, block after block.

"This is what my son has to look at every morning," Allen said. "The amount of trash that's been there, the illegal activity that's been there. It's just been kind of hard on all of us around here."

She said the homeless have even figured out how to steal electricity.

"They were definitely drawing power. So when you would come through the alley at night, you would see lights. You know they weren't flashlights. You would see a cord that was running through several different poles that they had inside of there," Allen explained.

Another neighbor said as quickly as police shut the popular homeless encampment down, it popped back up. "This is ongoing. It's like you clean it up; 60 seconds later, it's back," said a neighborhood who would only identified herself as "Missy."

Los Angeles city and county officials are both calling the homeless problem an emergency. The city council said the homeless population has jumped 11 percent in the past year.

Allen and her neighbors said they are sympathetic but want city leaders to do something about the issue.

"They'll come and make a big thing but they don't follow through. And not following through, you just leave it looking like this, over, over and over. It's past crazy," Missy added.

The council member who represents the area said he is well aware of the problem and hopes Proposition HHH will pass and provide the funds needed to address the homeless issue.