Garbage buries a home in 'affluent' LA, officials declare it 'public health emergency'

In the least expected site, a home in an affluent community in Los Angeles has been buried under mountains of garbage, which has left the residents enraged.

“It’s a fire hazard. It’s filthy,” said Miriam Kosberg, who is a member of the family that owns the property which has been located just behind the Fairfax dumping ground since 1955, while speaking to the Los Angeles Times.

As per Realtor.com, the median price range is $3.42 million in Fairfax section of Los Angeles.

“There’s garbage all the way up to the back fence. It’s been like that for years,” said Kosberg.

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Because of a huge pile of newspapers, white trash bags, cartons of cigarettes and clothing, the lawn was hardly visible and a complaint was filed by the residents.

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The homes have been filled with a putrid odour which has even spread in the affluent neighbourhood and has left the neighbours worried about what is likely to be beneath the accumulated debris and overgrown vegetation.

A woman, who has been living in the neighbourhood for more than two decades, said that “it’s unsanitary".

The woman said that she had filed a complaint regarding the property in the early 2000s.

Dozens of similar complaints have been received by the Department of Building and Safety since July which remain under investigation, revealed city records. The department also issued an order to comply in November.

“We are fed up, but we’re compassionate. In a perfect world, he gets help and someone helps make his environment nicer for him,” said the woman, while speaking about the property’s owner.

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Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass on Wednesday (April 3) along with Councilwoman Katy Yaroslavsky, who was representing Fairfax, visited the home declaring it a “public health emergency.”

“Both of us, as you know, are new. I am tracking this from last night to find out where complaints were lodged and what happened in the process,” said Bass.

The property has been owned by Raymond Gaon since the mid-1990s, as per the public records.

In 2014, he was asked to remove the garbage and two misdemeanor criminal charges for noncompliance were filed by the city before they dismissed the case in 2019.

(With inputs from agencies)