Homeless people have taken over a huge upscale RV parking lot in City of Industry, California.
According to Fox 11 Los Angeles, the lot with 130 campers worth a total of $6.5 million has become a dangerous place for homeless people to live after the person who bought the RVs left the area two years ago.
There are videos of the scene that show the parking lot being full of huge piles of trash and one of the campers on fire.
People who live and work nearby told the station that the lot has a lot of fires and that crime, including robberies, has become very common in the area since then.
The local news source says that goods worth millions of dollars were stolen from a train that runs behind the property.
News station Fox 11 LA reported that Nissan workers who said they store extra goods in part of the parking lot also said that homeless people often steal new tires and gas from the tanks.
Nissan receptionist Kiki told the local station, “At night, it’s kind of scary to go to our cars.” “Every morning the sheriff’s department drives through the lot and then they just leave, but they told us they can’t really do anything because it’s abandoned.”
Private protection, surveillance cameras, and the police have not done much to stop the crimes that are happening all the time. The station said that security teams had tried to get the campers back before but gave up because they were afraid for their own safety.
Khaled Ghrewahti, an employee at Nissan, told Fox 11 that the rising number of homeless people was the fault of our leaders, who were not doing anything about it.
A property manager told Fox 11 that the man who bought the new campers just moved out and hasn’t paid rent in two years.
Ray Henderson, who lives in one of the campers and works at a nearby meat store, said that the RV owner has come back before. Henderson was told that he could rent the place for $300 a month.
Supervisor of LA County Hilda Solis said that the owner of the property recently won a court order to get the people living there to leave. The owner started legal processes last year to get back control of the property.
“Although the City does not own the site, this issue is a private dispute between the property owners and a private party,” Solis said in a note. However, the County of Los Angeles does not have control over land use issues in incorporated cities such as the City of Industry. However, my office has taken action to address problems at the lot. In order to do that, the Homeless Outreach Services Team (HOST) of the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Office will keep reaching out this week.
Fox 11 said the building manager said it would cost $80,000 to clean up the trash. The cleanup will start on Wednesday, and the station said they hope to have everyone out within two days.
