Alhambra is home to a growing number of homeless people. This growing homeless population can wreak havoc on both private and public property. While we charge the city with the cleanup of homeless encampments on public property, we face private citizens with the cleanup of these encampments when they spring up on the private property. This means hiring a service like ours to come in and wipe away all the leftover material that gets abandoned as the transient homeless population moves from one spot to another at will. They accumulate massive amounts of stuff at each location where they set up shop, and they also build up huge piles of refuse and waste.

All of this waste material has to eventually be handled by someone in order to remove it, and due to the hazardous nature of the stuff that gets left behind, it is important that you leave this cleanup up to a professional service like ours. These homeless people may just be folks down on their luck or experiencing some hard times but are just regular folks like you or me, but some of them are out there because of prolonged substance abuse issues or mental health problems. This leaves a unique stain on the city because these folks can leave behind some very problematic materials like piles of used syringes or human feces. These very hazardous waste materials require some special training to handle, remove, transport, and dispose of, and that is where our crews shine. They have the experience that sets them apart from the average joe, and they are specially trained in all the necessary facets involved in cleaning up these sites.

When it comes to returning a piece of private property back to the way it was before a homeless person or group of people decided to set up shop on it, it takes a lot of know-how, experience, and elbow grease to get the job done and get it done correctly. Our experienced trained professional crews have all of these qualities and are not afraid to get in there and get their hands dirty with the cleanup process. That process has three major stages that are all equally important and tough.

The first stage is the removal of the bulk items such as tents, tarps, mattresses, sleeping bags, piles of cardboard, clothing, and everything else that these people leave behind as they move from one location to another. Everything that you could imagine gets collected and piled up by these folks, but since they have no actual means of transportation, they can only take what they can carry with them on to the next spot they choose to camp at. So, anything and everything they built up gets left behind for services like ours to come in and remove it all by disposing of it all correctly. While most of it can be taken to the regular landfill or city dump, there are some materials inside of all this material that cannot be legally dumped in these locations.

This is where stage two comes in to play. In this stage our crews identify and make a note of all the hazardous waste substances within the bulk of the waste and then they make a plan of attack for handling, removing, transporting, and finally properly disposing of it all. These hazardous substances and materials can include used syringes, piles or buckets full of human feces and refuse, leftover medical waste like used bandages that once covered open sores or wounds, and plenty of other nasty items that you should never handle without proper training.

This is one of the major reasons we highly encourage you to hire a service like ours for handling the cleanup of one of these homeless encampments rather than attempting to handle the situation on your own. There are so many hazardous materials and substances included in these encampments that our crew members require dozens of hours of specialized training to learn how to properly handle, remove, transport, and dispose of it all. Each has to be separated and taken to unique disposal sites where they can be properly eliminated and neutralized and being able to identify, separate, and remove all of these things takes unique knowledge and safety equipment. This all just translates into many hours of training for professional service members like ours, and every one of our employees has passed through many rigorous hours of training before they hit the streets to perform these cleanups.

Once all the bulk items and hazardous waste have been removed, the third and final stage of cleanup can begin. This is where the area starts to return to its original state and includes things like pressure washing with biodegradable detergents to sanitize all the surfaces left behind including concrete, fences, and walls or some minor pest control. The pest control includes identifying what pests have made a home in the area because of the encampment’s filth being present and can include everything from rats and mice to bedbugs and fleas. Once our professionals identify the presence of any of these pest species, they can then treat the area for them by spraying the proper material in the area to kill them or lay out traps or poisons to get rid of the remaining pests.

After all three stages are complete, what you are left with is an area that is ready for the next round of craftsmen to come in and begin the process of rebuilding. They can now do their jobs and rebuild structures that may have been damaged, any infrastructure that may have been disrupted, or even things like fresh paint or planting fresh landscape designs. Whatever that next process includes, our professional crews leave the area in a state of readiness for them to come in and be able to immediately begin the work of rebuilding, repairing, or refurbishing the property in order to return it to all of its original glory. Our goal is to get the area that was once home to a homeless encampment to this state of being ready for the various craftsmen to come in and do their jobs right away and we achieve our goal to great success.

So, the next time you are faced with the task of removing a homeless encampment from your property or a property you are managing, please give professionals like us a call to perform the service. Do not attempt to handle all the unsafe and unhealthy materials on your own, because a lot of it you cannot just dump in the trash and could face serious fines if caught doing so. It is best left up to professionals like our crew members, and we will happily assist you in the process of returning your property to how it looked before the encampment sprung up in that place.