LOS ANGELES – One fifth of the trash the City of Los Angeles Bureau of Sanitation collects comes from homeless encampments. More could be collected, but the issue is defining what is trash and what belongs to a homeless person.

“Skid Row is nasty, Skid Row ain’t safe; because the city and the departments are not making it safe,” said Manuel Compito.“Skid Row is my neighborhood, I’m a community worker, community organizer. So, my thing is don’t’ talk about it, be about it, be serious about. We’ve been doing this thing for over 10 years now.”

Over the last decade, Compito has spearheaded a handful of initiatives trying to get the area cleaned up. From Skid Row Brigade, to Operation Face-Lift Skid Row, and Funky Trash Can campaign, his efforts have spanned more than a decade.

Compito was even recognized by the city of Los Angeles. He says after spending so much time trying to do right by these streets, he now knows that there is something bigger at play.

“When we got into it, we didn’t realize that the trash would become a political disaster. A political problem. This is a political problem, because the city isn’t using any kind of common sense, because this is garbage, this is trash,” said Compito pointing at random items scattered on the sidewalk and street.

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Compito says the trash is due to a settlement the city reached with in the Carl Mitchell et al. vs. city of Los Angeles case. Except for bulky items, like refrigerators and couches, the city won’t cap the amount of belongings homeless people can have in parts of the downtown LA area.  

“So, what they’ve done, in this game between the city and these agencies, they decide to leave this here, and they’re gonna say and tell you, that this is somebody’s personal property.  And so we’re gonna leave this here and we a’int gonna clean it up,” said Compito.

City of LA Bureau of Sanitation representatives says their hands are tied.

“We can’t take sides on this,” says Gonzalo Barriga, Assistant Chief Environmental Compliance Officer. “When an individual says that’s my stuff, they have the opportunity to take it with them and move along.  If they can’t take all of their belonging with them and it’s not a health hazard we will store that stuff as excess property for them.”

Homeless advocates argue that the settlement protects homeless individuals and their items.

After more than a decade cleaning up these streets, Compito is pretty tired of doing a job that he says, belongs to the city.

“Why should the community clean up everything and get no compensation,” said Compito.  

A possible solution to this mess Compito says, is to take the approach the City of San Jose took. The city started a pilot program where they paid 25 homeless individuals $15 an hour to clean up the city.