Authorities search Sun Valley hoarder property after years of neighbor complaints
Los Angeles police and officials from several other government agencies Wednesday entered a Sun Valley property that a hoarder has turned into an unlicensed junkyard clogged with rusted vehicles and hazardous waste.
The hoarder, 50-year-old David Ferrera, was arrested Tuesday night by Los Angeles police on an outstanding warrant on suspicion of misdemeanor theft, according to police and booking records. His bail was set at $155,000.
The six-acre parcel on a fire road off La Tuna Canyon Road has been the subject of years of fruitless complaints from neighbors. But after The Times wrote about it earlier this month, authorities sprang into action.
Elena Malone, who lives next door and had contacted nearly a dozen agencies in search of help in recent years, said personnel from the Los Angeles Police Department, the Los Angeles Fire Department, the city Department of Building and Safety, the state Environmental Protection Agency and other agencies arrived Wednesday morning and searched the property.
Married schoolteachers bought their dream home in Sun Valley. Then a mentally ill neighbor’s hoarding turned it into a prison.
Ferrera’s mother, Mary, owns the property and has said her son fell into mental illness and hoarding after a 2017 wildfire destroyed many of his belongings. She told The Times she paid to remove 21 dump-truck loads of trash, only to have her son fill the property back up with scavenged items.
City Councilmember Monica Rodriguez said at a Wednesday news conference that the Fire Department had gotten a search warrant to inspect the property this week, with an eye toward declaring it a public nuisance. That, she said, would allow the city to take additional action.
A Superior Court commissioner criticized the city’s failure to help neighbors earlier this year, calling the lack of response “mind-boggling.”
Rodriguez acknowledged Wednesday that her office has been aware of the problem since 2019. But she said progress was frustrated by COVID, court delays, difficulty accessing the property and other bureaucratic problems.
“There were a lot of issues with this particular property, and we were aware of these issues as we were pursuing the resolution with the Department of Building and Safety,” Rodriguez said.
She also pointed to the jailing of Mary Ferrera earlier this year, which she suggested was too short to be effective. The 80-year-old retired school teacher was sentenced to 180 days in jail for not cleaning up the land but was released after less than 24 hours.
Rodriguez described the multi-agency presence at the property Wednesday as an “all hands on deck” approach to “better assess what the circumstances are at that property.”
Malone said she was pleased by the government response this week.
“Fifteen LAPD guys just walked up the driveway,” she said.
After years of seeking help though, she remained cautious. “The outcome may be very little in the end.”
Mary Ferrera did not respond to a message seeking comment.
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