LOS ANGELES — A massive homeless camp cleanup at Echo Park Lake has yielded 35 tons of trash, 723 pounds of biological waste, and thousands of hypodermic needles as the California city attempts to return the area to family use.
Recently released Los Angeles Sanitation Department reports show the magnitude of the environmental hazard that the Echo Park tent city had created before city officials stepped in to remove approximately 200 homeless people in March. The collected biological waste included 544 pounds of urine and 180 pounds of feces. Also found were 30 pounds of drug paraphernalia (including hypodermic needles), 45 pounds of corrosive material, 125 pounds of ignitable objects, 80 pounds of paint, and 15 pounds of hazardous oil.
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“The damage to the park was substantial,” said Riley Montgomery, a filmmaker who lives nearby and witnessed the continuous degradation of the area firsthand. “The grass is completely destroyed, and water quality needs to be modified. I saw people dumping buckets of bodily fluids into the lake.”
The artificial lake created in 1891 is within close proximity to downtown Los Angeles. It features pedal boats, fishing, bike trails, sports fields, picnic areas, and day camps. Two geyser fountains within the lake are a trademark. Homeless residents apparently liked the ambiance too and began pitching tents in earnest about five years ago.
The homeless population grew until it created an autonomous zone with its own police force and neighborhoods, such as an area where gang members lived. A YouTube video produced by Montgomery shows one woman yelling at another about the placement of her tent. The first woman claimed she controlled the area around her tent and that the second woman had no right to be nearby.
Such discourse spread into neighborhoods surrounding the lake. Residents were harassed leaving their homes or trying to utilize the park, Montgomery said. He added that elderly residents of a senior home had been terrorized and were too afraid to step outside.
So, he launched a Change.org petition that garnered more than 5,500 signatures, and it pressured politicians to step in and help reclaim the park. The $430,000 cleanup was initiated by the city government of Los Angeles and spearheaded by Councilmember Mitch O’Farrell.
Over the decades, numerous park revitalizations have occurred, but this is the most ambitious one yet. The homeless have been housed in a variety of local locations, including the LA Grand Hotel and a tiny home project under construction.
A chain-link fence surrounds the park, and for now, all is quiet except for a few protesters who walk by to attach anti-establishment signs.
“The lake is not part of our lives anymore. It’s more like a memory with the dream and hope that it’s restored and open for everyone to enjoy and not a spot where you drive by and just look for it,” said a woman interviewed in the YouTube video. She recalled watching a homeless man kill a baby duckling and has been too traumatized to return.
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The park is scheduled to reopen in the summer.
