A sprawling homeless encampment in Los Angeles is drawing ire from neighbors who say the makeshift shelter has grown into a full “city” of its own, complete with working electricity and a recreational area featuring a tennis court, garden and barbecue pit.
The encampment sits on a vacant Koreatown lot surrounded by apartment buildings and other structures, according to ABC 7.
“The reason why people are sleeping here is because you leaders are sleeping on not taking initiative and action to clean this place up,” neighborhood resident Daniel King told the station.
Max Smith, another neighbor, described the privately owned site as “a city in there,” adding, “It’s crazy. It’s crazy.”
“There’s a tennis court, there’s a garden where they’re growing stuff,” resident Sangmin Lee told the local station.
“There’s a barbecue pit.”
Lee raised alarms over safety after witnessing people living on the lot pry open a streetlight, place a surge protector inside, and run an extension cord across the street into the camp.
“Thank God it hasn’t rained in a while,” Lee said.
“It’s a fire hazard … then they run the cable across the street, and it’s a trip hazard for everyone.”
A young woman living nearby told ABC 7 she avoids walking her dog near the site because people from the encampment have approached her while she was alone.
An ABC 7 crew visiting the lot reported being threatened by a person on the property.
Los Angeles City Councilmember Katy Yaroslavsky said the city has struggled to act because the land is privately owned.
“I think that the challenge comes from the fact that this is private property,” Yaroslavsky told ABC 7.
“But because it’s private property, there’s [a] different path and that path is convoluted. It’s over-bureaucratic. It’s the city at its worst, sort of not being able to get out of its own way.”
The lot is owned by a limited liability corporation registered in Delaware, which did not respond to requests for comment, according to ABC7.
Yaroslavsky said the company has cooperated with officials and is expected to soon post “No Trespassing” signs on the fence around the encampment, a step that would allow LAPD to intervene.
The Los Angeles Department of Building Safety told ABC 7 it is “issuing an order to comply to the property owner to address the security, rubbish, garbage, trash and debris graffiti.”
But Yaroslavsky pressed for quicker enforcement.
“We immediately called [them] and said, ‘Hey, get out there. Please send an inspector out there so we can start this process,’ and it took a while, but they finally have gotten someone out there,” she said.
Meanwhile, Public Works told ABC 7 that crews will install an anti-vandal wrap around the streetlight that was rigged to provide electricity.
Mayor Karen Bass’ office told the news station that outreach teams have been dispatched to the encampment in an effort to move residents into housing.
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