Over a year ago, dozens of Black Series camp trailers began appearing in vacant lots.
The black and white trailer, which ultimately costs around $50,000, is collecting dust and collecting SAT dust, is collecting dust, according to Los Angeles County officials.
Now, the homeless camp between Azusa and Gale Avenue is becoming a headache for nearby businesses and lot owners who have paid their lot to use or have tried for over a year to remove the trailer.
Lots of garbage and occasional fires have been reported.
Efren Rodriguez, who works for an adjacent Nissan dealer, told NBC 4 News that someone from the camp had recently tried to attack him.
“The other day I got a car and a person at 5am. They started arguing with me and didn’t say anything. “Every trailer is right away, there are people in it. There are even kids and babies.”
Property Owner Legacy Point said in a statement that the camper van was not permitted to be kept in an empty lot and that it spent more than a year trying to acquire owners of BlackSeries Campers Inc., which the owner identified as Hong Kong QIU.
“While Mr. Qiu has recognized our ownership and expressed his willingness to pay appropriate licensing fees, BlackSeries has not made a single payment for the use of our property,” Legacy Point wrote in a statement.
The company said it filed a lawsuit in September, seeking damages and removal of the camper van. The ruling fell in January when Los Angeles County Superior Court awarded $95,610 Legacy Points and ordered them to be removed, city and company officials said.
Representatives from Qiu and Blackseries were not immediately contacted for comment.
Los Angeles County superintendent Hilda Solis said sheriff’s homeless services team and Los Angeles Center asked the Alcohol and Substance Abuse Center to do outreach on the site in districts that include Industrial Street.
Industrial Street Mayor Joshua Nelson said the town is helping to coordinate cleaning efforts between property owners and the Sheriff’s Department.
Although efforts to clear the camp are underway, the incident illustrates the challenges facing cities, counties and homeless service providers when they face when clearing camps from private property.
Last year, the Los Angeles County Homelessness Initiative spent six months tracking owners of several Palmdale lots, where over 100 people lived in makeshift shelters. The county requested that officials be granted entry into the property before owners could sort out the cleanup.
In Industrial District, vacant property owners began the process of clearing it in September 2023 when they learned about campers.
From October 2023 to September 2024, Legacy Point said in a statement that it had made several attempts to resolve the issue amicably.
“These efforts included the proposal of a legal licensing agreement for temporary storage of black campers, sending formal suspension and assumptions, and issuing to towing notifications,” the statement read. “Black people repeatedly ignored or refuted these efforts, even disabling the vehicle by removing tires and wheels to prevent towing.
In September, Legacy Point said it filed a lawsuit against the company and its owner. Now, the sheriff’s department is making court orders to remove campers and people from many of them.
“We would have preferred a faster resolution, but we recognize that the deliberate pace of our legal system, sometimes frustrating, is a fundamental aspect of ensuring legitimate procedures,” the company’s statement read.
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