Garbage overflow at Home Forward property frustrates Southwest Portland neighborhood

Community members of a Southwest Portland neighborhood are dealing with what they call a massive waste problem right outside their front doors.

Residents of and around Slavin Court townhomes tell KATU the community dumpsters and public trash cans are practically always overflowing to the point they’re concerned it’s becoming a health and safety hazard. Many neighbors said it’s been a problem for years now, but it’s reaching a breaking point.

“When I come outside to get fresh air and there is garbage everywhere, it’s just disturbing and sad,” Slavin Court resident Angela Santana said.

Neighbors say the impacts of the overflow also extend beyond the dumpsters, spreading into the community playground and to other neighbors outside of the immediate community.

“I had to have an exterminating company come out because the rats are coming from there,” neighbor Brenda Gillilan said. “Most recently I saw maggots crawling around.”

According to Ian Davie, chief operating officer at Home Forward, the property maintains trash hauling three days a week but said they have seen other community members outside of Slavin Court using the disposal bins or dumping their trash on the ground around the bins.

“I know it gets piled up quick, but even then, I feel like it’s unnecessary that people put garbage outside of the dumpster even when it’s not full,” Santana said.

Davie acknowledged the frustrations many residents expressed to KATU and said Home Forward is taking proactive measures to try and get the situation under control.

“It is frustrating that this has impacted our residents and the neighboring community,” Davie said. “When we learned of the issue, we took immediate action to increase onsite presence by our property manager and maintenance staff, to pick up the grounds and address related impacts. We also remain in contact with residents to better understand the impacts on the community.”

One resident tells KATU the surrounding overflow often does not get picked up by Waste Management. Neighbors say this has resulted in maintenance, property staff, and others picking up the trash themselves.

“I do know that there’s been times that the apartment manager, like the maintenance, I think it is, they’ll come up and kinda clean and pick stuff up. I’ve even done it. I just did it a minute ago, even just picked up some garbage along the way while I’m taking out my own trash,” Santana said. “I feel like it, really, everybody has to be involved in this, to be able to keep it clean and feel somewhat safe.”

Some neighbors said they hope Home Forward continues to follow the situation and communicate with all community members. All neighbors said they just want to see accountability.

“This is kind of a chronic situation that’s been going on for actually years, but it seems to have reached a point now where we’re seeing rats and maggots” Gillilan said. “I’ve reached out to Home Forward, especially with this recent situation, and it just seems to be getting worse.”

KATU also reached out to Waste Management for more details on pickup times and operations, but they were unable to give me details without property approval.

Davie emphasized this situation is not unique to Home Forward, saying, “as KATU has reported in the past; improper trash disposal has been a chronic issue in our city, although it has gotten better. It’s just unfortunate that this happened at one of our properties.”

Davie encourages any community members to reach out to Home Forward when situations like this happen.