In Koreatown, a discarded chair or mattress can quickly snowball into a larger pile of trash and debris.
It’s one reason Los Angeles is launching a dedicated cleanup crew to address the neighborhood’s persistent illegal dumping problem.
The Koreatown Youth and Community Center will operate the rapid response team, expected to launch in September, under a one-year contract with Council District 10. The three-person crew will remove bulky items, like furniture, appliances, electronic waste and other illegally dumped trash from the neighborhood.
Team members with the rapid response team will not be involved in homeless encampment sweeps, according to officials, and if they do encounter bulky items near encampments, they will notify the city’s sanitation department, according to Pablo Cardoso, director of environmental services at the nonprofit KYCC.
In the last year, Koreatown logged 17,429 illegal dumping service requests, according to an analysis of MyLA311 data by Crosstown.
Out of the 116 neighborhoods and districts categorized by city data, Koreatown is second in the most calls for service for illegal dumping, second only to Van Nuys.
Calls for service to MyLA311 for illegal dumping across the city of Los Angeles from July 2025 to July 2026.
Koreatown’s high population density makes the neighborhood a priority for the targeted cleanup effort, according to officials.
“Given how densely populated Koreatown is, we are launching this targeted pilot program to enhance local maintenance efforts specifically for this community,” Council District 10 spokesperson Devyn Bakewell.
The council office approached the nonprofit KYCC earlier this year, Cardoso said, about operating the program. Officials did not have the full cost for the pilot program.
Crew members will work eight-hour shifts Monday through Friday, focusing on major corridors bounded by Olympic Boulevard, Pico Boulevard, Western Avenue and Venice Boulevard. Council District 10 will direct crews to priority locations and respond to residents’ requests for service.
“I’m sure you’ve driven around Koreatown and seen bulky items just everywhere,” Cardoso said.
From April through December 2025, the neighborhood logged 12,640 illegal dumping service requests, according to the latest available MyLA311 data compiled by Crosstown. During that same period, the intersection of Fourth Street and New Hampshire Avenue received 206 reports — the highest total for any single location in the city.
Tam Phan, a Koreatown resident who has volunteered with No Harm KTLA since 2022, said her group regularly encounters illegally dumped furniture and other debris during its twice-monthly neighborhood cleanups.
Until recently, volunteers met up at 6th Street and Kenmore Avenue, but after that area became noticeably cleaner, they moved to other parts of Koreatown, including around Wilshire Boulevard, Western Avenue and Vermont Avenue.
“We’ve noticed there are lots of stray trash, sometimes food waste that’s fermenting in the sun and lots of furniture that people leave outside their apartments that’s been there for quite a while,” Phan said.
Volunteers typically bring trash bags during cleanups, but recently started bringing large rolling bins to collect more waste. When they come across bulky items they can’t haul away, Phan said they report them through the city’s 311 system.
Phan said she hopes the rapid response team will help address the problem.
“I think most people think it’s the norm to leave something out and the city will miraculously show up and clean it up,” she said. “As the weeks go by, we see the same item there.”
While KYCC’s litter abatement crews have occasionally removed bulky items, Cardoso said this will be the nonprofit’s first crew dedicated exclusively to that work.
“I think this is something that is absolutely needed,” he said. “There’s a lot of illegal dumping that goes on out there and this will be an asset to Koreatown.”
As part of the partnership, KYCC is recruiting local residents to staff the crew. Bakewell said local hiring was a priority to ensure the team is familiar with the community it will serve.
While the current contract runs for one year, Cardoso said KYCC hopes the pilot becomes a permanent resource for the neighborhood.
