Take a look at what's been growing in Downtown Fresno. There are piles of smelly trash covering a city street and shacks built along the fence of Freeway 99. It stretches across two blocks, right behind homes and churches.
"Everyday it's getting larger and larger," said Edward Dunn, Pastor of First Union Missionary Baptist Church.
Dunn says he tries to help the homeless. He even lets them use the church's water. But lately cars have been getting broken into and he's tired of the disgusting mess.
"I hate to use the word filthy. Not only does it effect the community, the way it looks, but also diseases," said Dunn.
The City of Fresno says it has received dozen of complaints over the last year, but its hands are tied.
"It would appear that the city isn't doing anything about it, but the city is doing a lot. It's on two private parcels of land and so the city has initiated code enforcement cases against each property owner, but it's up to each property owner to clean up the mess," said Gregory Barfield, Chief of Staff for Oliver Baines.
The city is cleaning up the trash on Monterey Street. Barfield says the city just cleared it on January 9th, but one week later the street is filled with trash again. A homeless man who's lived in the area for a year doesn't think he's bothering residents.
"Most of them deal with us. We make sure nothing happens to their house and they make sure nothing happens to our tents. We sort of work together," said "Wolf."
But one resident said she can't even let her kids play outside.
The city says one of the private land owners hasn't responded to any letters. The other is beginning to come around. CBS47 wasn't able to reach either land-owner.
