Residents of West Side apartment complex struggle with overflowing dumpsters, trash

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – Neighbors in a West Side apartment complex told KOB 4 Tuesday the dumpsters haven’t been emptied for three weeks. It’s about the same time a new property management company took over the complex.

“It’s ridiculous no one should have to live like this.”

The fences around the dumpsters at Canyon De Arrowhead are bursting with at the seams. 

“They stopped picking up the trash. They usually pick it up every Monday, but they stopped doing that three weeks ago. It’s piling up real bad,” said Evenlyn Ventura, a resident. 

It’s not just the dumpsters, it’s the sidewalks, yards, and playgrounds. Everything is covered in trash, and residents say they can’t seem to find help. 

“We come outside and pick up the trash as often as we can, but it just keeps coming. The wind always blows it in front of our door,” said Ventura.

“Nobody is ever in the office, ever. You call, and it rings, rings, rings.”

“They are never in the office we never know what is happening all the maintenance guys are quitting it’s difficult,” Ventura said.

We also had difficulty finding someone in charge. Both of the local offices were closed, and no business hours were listed. Eventually, we were able to get a hold of someone from the corporate office in Tennessee.

A representative said they were aware of the situation, and if they decide to talk with us more on this, they’ll call us back in 72 business hours. But if you do a little math: 72 divided by eight hours in a business day comes out to nine days. Roughly, we could expect a call back after the 4th of July. 

KOB 4 was able to get a hold of the city’s Solid Waste Department. They told us the complex has an onsite trash compactor that the city empties.

But, the Solid Waste Department says they were told the lift that the apartment uses to load the compactor was stolen, and they haven’t been able to empty their dumpsters since.

A city code inspector is now working to get more dumpsters onsite, but did not give a date of when that could happen.