EL CAJON, Calif. — From the street, you can see holes in fences, trash piling up, and clothing strewn about.
But walk farther down the dirt path off First Street near Interstate 8 in El Cajon, and you can see huge encampments, dozens of bicycles all over the place, and a large, covered makeshift shelter.
“It is dangerous,” said Maryann Ostermeyer. She lives around the corner and is beyond frustrated with the situation. “The other day, I saw a mother walking with her three kids and I saw this maniac pop out of this fence and start lunging and screaming at her.”
Making this even more concerning is that Naranca Elementary is just a couple blocks away and school starts up again in a few weeks.
“It's not ok!,” Maryann said. She has notified Caltrans, and they have been out there cleaning out the encampments, but it doesn’t last long. “Caltrans will fix the fencing. They've spent God knows how much money fixing the fencing and then that night, the fencing is cut again.”
Caltrans keeps patching the area with the same old fencing, but just a few miles away they've been installing a new heavier fencing that's a lot tougher to cut. Working for you,
CBS 8 reached out to Caltrans and they acknowledged Maryann's area is a problem.
In a statement, they told us, "We are aware of the date that children will be walking by this area to begin the new school year at Naranca Elementary and are aiming to have the area cleared by then."
As for the heavier fencing, they said, "Caltrans is looking into installing fortified fencing in this area." For Maryann, it needs to come sooner rather than later. “It's time for Caltrans to look at that priority list and say - hey, maybe if there's a middle school in the area, maybe we need to jump that up on the list.”
Caltrans has agreed to keep us updated on the area and Maryann promises to stay on top of it too.
“I can't fix the world, but by God, I can take a stand here and this is a stand,” she said. “This is the hill in which to die.”
WATCH RELATED: Crews take apart tents, clear items from Chula Vista encampment