The root cause of this issue needs to be addressed. All this trash that has made this area a prime spot for homeless is a direct result of trash blowing from the dumpsters in the parking lot/soccer field behind international foods and the stores by AutoZone. People think it is OK to pile their household trash on top of these overflowing dumpsters. This issue was reported to the City of Raleigh at the beginning of January, and nothing was done. Now look at the area! These dumpsters need to be moved and enclosed instead of sitting where people can pull in and dump their trash. Maybe this issue needs to be escalated up the chain of command beyond See Click Fix. Anyone have any contact information?

Thanks for reporting. I have referred this to the City’s Housing and Environmental Inspections Division. When the inspectors have had a chance to investigate I will post an update.

The owner of record of this property is State Farm Mutual Insurance Company, 1 State Farm Plaza, Bloomington, IN 61701-4300

Should we contact State Farm and bother them about it?

I think that is the best approach for this matter. From my experience (I work in the landscape industry) the best results have been when the property owner is required to take responsibility for the issues present on their property.

I commented on the post about trash in the area and also mentioned the homeless people living in the woods 3 weeks ago also. I never thought it would be allowed to continue. This needs to be taken care of now!

In addition to all the trash, homeless and potential for criminal activity, this area is regularly used as a bathroom for the kids and their parents playing soccer behind the International. I don't know how you stop this from happening, but certainly is a health issue that should be addressed.

This problem is significantly increasing the amount of littering/trash in our neighborhood, as well as, the safety and security of our neighborhood. Our children deserve to live in a place where they feel safe and can play outside without homeless people coming up to them or walking around.

Is there any way the city could put these people to work picking up trash or some other kind of landscap/parks dept type job? I am sure they would work alot cheaper and they would accept food and shelter as payment also.

Trash has again blown into the neighborhood from the International Foods shopping center. The attached picture isn't even half of the trash littered near the Olympia Dr entrance into Renaissance Park. I will post a 2nd photo of 1 of the over flowing dumpsters.

Over flowing dumpster! Also around 9:30 this morning I noticed a (CenturyLink??) van throwing away trash in one of the dumpsters on the opposite side of the Int. Foods building facing Chapanoke Rd. Dumpster enclosures would definitely help resolve this type of issue. Are dumpster enclosures not required as part of a City of Raleigh ordinance?

There was a homeless man pulling trash out of the dumpster and going through it this morning around 11:30.

Something has got to be done. This dumpster riddles the areas around it with trash to which I would think would be unacceptable to the city. Please help us fix this issue so we can have a trash free area...

Did anyone contact State Farm? Is there an appropriate representative from the neighborhood who would have some authority to request action from them? I'm happy to place a call but don't know that they would necessarily listen to me. I also don't know what actions have already been taken to address this with State Farm, or whether things have only been done locally. Please post if you have talked with State Farm (property owner) about this issue!

I have been in contact with State Farm. They received a notice from the City of Raleigh as well. The person from corporate that I was in contact with let me know that they have a contract with 1-800 Got Junk to come clean up the lot quarterly. Apparently this has not been getting done. They were very apologetic and informed me that they came and cleaned the lot last week, and they would be keeping a closer eye on things. He also left his contact information with me. I will contact him again if the homeless move back in.
In the mean time it is not all State Farm's fault. Something has to be done about the dumpsters and the homeless. I think someone is talking with the owners of International Foods.
Thank you everyone for your support with this issue. Thank you City of Raleigh for notifying State Farm and being receptive to our issue.

Housing & Environmental Inspections has responded. They have found an additional pile of bottles back in the wooded area of 420 Chapanoke Road (State Farm Property) that we will be addressing. Also there is some dumping and general trash located behind 3210 S. Wilmington Street, this is the strip center that has the advanced auto in it, the dumpsters located at 407 Chapanoke have been cleaned up around for now. The deadline for compliance will be 3-14-13. We will be making verbal contact with these owners also, we expect that these issues will be cleared prior to the 14th.

Vagrants will continue to be a problem until Wake County & all Cities and Towns come together to
start a program to forcefully relocate people without a valid address or valid proof of a round-trip airline ticket & proof of accommodation in a hotel / motel out of Wake County (with a choice of either free one way flights to California (LAX / SFO) or 155 days jail time for vagrants who are caught)

The past week walking my dog I noticed that there was book bags with clothes and other stuff in the trees along with plastic bins that are covering up homeless belongings across the street from the club house. Not to mention all the trash left behind in the woods from someone living there. Until this gets picked up and it is consistent they will continue to think this is a safe place to sleep and stash there belongings. Please notify the owner of land that they need a contract with someone to clean up the area.

Thanks for reporting. I have referred this to the City’s Housing and Environmental Inspections Division. When the inspectors have had a chance to investigate I will post an update.

The Housing & Environmental Inspections Division has responded. Per the last comment on SeeClickFix this appears to be another location in the same area. The State Farm property is not across from the clubhouse. We have made an inspection of the area where we believe the violation is located and were unable to locate any nuisance violations. If the complainant would like to contact Inspector Rose at 919-278-6184 he would be more than willing to discuss the situation and try to resolve any issues. We will be discussing the homeless problem with the police department to see if they can provide some assistance to keep the homeless out of these vacant lots. Also it appears that this SeeClickFix should have already been closed out. It becomes confusing when the pictures shown are from the original complaint and the location has changed from where the original violation was located. Thanks.

Fencing off the property would help

until a fence is put up to keep homeless out of this property this will continue to be a problem

The city cannot put a fence on private property or require the property owner to erect a fence.

Do not close other people's issues as only cities and towns are allowed to do that (close issues)

BTW: if the trash on the property continues to be a problem then COR CAN require fences around the property in exchange for NOT condemning the property as a danger to the public

Greg & Billy - If you will notice the when the city closed the issue they gave you the phone number of the person to speak with regarding the issue. At this point there is no reason to keep re-opening the issue. as constantly complaining here is not going to be as effective as being big boys and actually picking the phone and having a constructive conversation with someone to come up with a solution for this issue

The city needs to take a much stronger approach to cleaning up habitual filthy areas. As summer aproaches the rats and fleas and other parasites that spread disease begin to breed and the health risk to everyone is exponentially increased. The cost to care for people suffering from bacteria based ailments is enormous, why not stop the problem before it ransacksus all financially? There was a homeless man that lived in the Western Avenue Big Lots/Food Lion parking lot for all of last year on his pile of stuff, through summer fall winter and now spring. He was finally moved and hasn't returned for a while... this is important not just because we can't stand to see this but for the health of all. There are healthy cities and countries that are clean and proactive in stopping garbage related problems by picking it up! WHY DO WE LEAVE A MESS? PICK IT UP, do not encourage behavior and toxicproblems.

Closing out Open issues that have been addressed.

Housing & Environmental Inspections has responded. The inspector has confirmed the violations cleared and case was closed on 4/29/13.

Thank you.