Overflowing junk in northeast El Paso yard is cleaned up by city crews after neighbor outrage

UPDATE, Nov. 9: Residents in a northeast El Paso neighborhood breathed a sigh of relief on Tuesday.

The Orpheus Street home whose front yard had been overflowing with junk was cleaned up, but it only happened because of the intervention of the City of El Paso's code enforcement and environmental services departments.

"It looks a lot better, it looks a lot better, we've never seen anything like that in any of the houses in the street so we got kind of concerned because it is a lot of junk," said neighbor Michael Ruiz.

ORIGINAL REPORT, Nov. 8: EL PASO, Texas — Lawnmowers, popcorn machines, and ATVs. Those are just some of the items you will find sitting in the front yard of a northeast El Paso home that is causing frustration among neighbors. 

“You look closely, you can actually see a wall of trash. They literally built up a wall,” one neighbor said while looking at the yard at 10437 Orpheus Street.

Residents along that street say the trash started to pile up in July of this year, until it got so out of hand that stuff was overflowing into the sidewalk in front of the house. The clutter on the sidewalk hampers people from walking by.  

“I can’t get down the right side of the street. I have to go out in the street to get around all that junk,” another neighbor explained. 

Because of the junk buildup, the homeowners couldn't fit their cars in their driveway anymore and moved them on the street. One of their vehicles was blocking the roadway and left space for only one lane of traffic to pass. 

The City of El Paso said it had received at least 15 complaints from their 311 program since August about the property. A city spokesperson said the house was committing both zoning outdoor storage and brush code violations; city staff have assigned crews to help the family clean up the mess. 

Neighbors say this was supposed to happen last week, but there was too much junk for the city crews. The clean up is scheduled for Tuesday this week as more crews will be heading out in the morning. 

ABC 7 reached out to the homeowners about this junk issue, but they did not want to comment on it. However, the couple did say their place was going to be cleaned soon.