LA trash houses: Other SoCal neighborhoods raise flags on their resident hoarders

LOS ANGELES COUNTY, Calif. - With the so-called trash house in the Fairfax District getting cleaned up quickly, residents from other Los Angeles County neighborhoods are asking about longtime hoarding-problem properties in their areas.

"We have quite a few in the 15th District, and I am sure, all over the city," said Councilmember Tim McOsker, as we stood in front of a trash-covered property in San Pedro which has been an issue for years and is part of a criminal complaint filed by the city. 

The complaints from San Pedro come as the trash house in the Fairfax District got attention from Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass before it was cleaned up by crews.

McOsker said the cleanup in the Fairfax District was the result of politicians reacting to media attention.

"Which is not good government," he adds.

McOsker explained the system of nuisance abatement is "broken." He has since introduced a motion in the city council looking to streamline a system that otherwise would have taken years to go through courts. He believes administrative actions might be faster and something his office has been able to use in some of the properties in his district.

FOX 11 reached out to Los Angeles' Department of Building and Safety to get a sense of how many nuisance properties it is dealing with. If the calls we are getting from viewers are any indications, it's safe to say there must be quite a few.

McOsker's motion is supposed to get its first hearing next week.