Drugs and fires turn abandoned Hollywood home into “disaster,” says neighbor
By Matthew Rodriguez
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HOLLYWOOD, California (KCAL, KCBS) — A group of Hollywood residents demanded that city leaders take immediate action after drugs and fires transformed a troubling encampment inside an abandoned home into a “perfect scenario for disaster” for residents.
“What we’ve been dealing with here is so difficult, because we’re always on the phone calling 911, calling our representatives, not getting a lot of answers,” neighbor Jeanne said. “We are a group of neighbors whose lives have been severely affected.”
The list of issues plaguing Jeanne and her neighbors started adding up five years ago after a nearby building was renovated into a short-term housing complex.
“There were drug overdoses. There were continuous calls to 911,” Jeanne said. “There were all kinds of things going on over there. There was prostitution stuff happening.”
Jeanne said the ongoing problems worsened when a homeless encampment took over an abandoned building near the intersection of North Wilton Place and Hollywood Boulevard.
“It was the perfect scenario for disaster,” she said. “The people that were buying drugs would then have a place to go over and do them.”
Since November, the abandoned property has caught on fire seven times, with crews extinguishing one on Tuesday. With a son and a collection of photographs, Jeanne has grown increasingly concerned about the potential for embers to spark a fire at her building.
“Our lives are in danger. Our property is in danger,” she said. “I have 30 years of photo archives as a photographer that are now at my mom’s, that I cannot bring here because I know they’re at risk. I am at risk. Anybody else here in this building is at risk.”
With her faith in leaders enacting change skewed by the ongoing problems, Jeanne believed the city had failed her neighborhood.
“The city allowing these buildings to happen, and where they’re allowing them to happen, is a complete failure,” she said. “For them to allow that to continue is criminal, bottom line. It’s criminal.”
In a statement, Councilman Hugo Soto-Martinez’s office said it is urgently working with the Department of Building and Safety to declare the abandoned home a nuisance property.
“This property has become a serious concern for neighbors, and we’re taking urgent action through multiple routes to address this public safety matter as quickly as possible,” spokesperson Nick Barnes-Batista said. “The case is expected to go before the Board of Building and Safety Commissioners in May. If approved, the City can place a lien and take immediate steps to secure the site ourselves.”
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