Santa Ana locks its trash cans against the homeless

[Liberal_in_LA]

Santa Ana neighborhood locks up trash to thwart scavengers


Paula Faccou of Santa Ana has had enough of foragers going through her trash looking for things to sell. “I pay for trash service. I should decide where it goes,” she says.

Residents are putting their recyclables into containers designed to withstand the brute strength of bears.
By Tony Barboza
June 16, 2009

They didn't hold up to the bears of Alaska, but they just might be enough to discourage the scavengers of Santa Ana.

Fed up with urban foragers who root through neighborhood trash in search of plastic and aluminum, residents of one Santa Ana neighborhood are locking up their recyclables in a container designed to withstand the brute strength and cunning of brown and black bears.

So it is that Paula Faccou now keeps a key -- right on the same chain with her house key -- to lock up her trash. And when the hauler drives down the street and upends the cart over his truck with an automated arm, the gravity-driven lock pops open.

Now there's hope on Van Ness Avenue that the bear bins will drive off people like the man Faccou nearly bumped into on her driveway one day as she was carrying in groceries.

"It just scared the living heck out of me," said the 67-year-old retiree. "A complete stranger, standing outside. It was very brazen, and that's pushing it too much. They have told me, 'What's your problem, lady? It's just trash,' but I pay for trash service. . . . I should decide where it goes."

City officials said they've seen a recent uptick in complaints about scavengers prowling the night before trash day, when bins are full of bottles and cans.

"It was pretty much a given that the economy was driving the increase in scavenging," said Mary Gonzales, the city's project manager, who is overseeing the program.


http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-outthere16-2009jun16%2C0%2C2611118.story