Parish cracks down on illegal trailer parks

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Piles of trash grow around decrepit RVs and camper trailers. In some cases, raw sewage gets dumped directly on the ground. Not all of the trailers have power or water.

One man told deputies that a rat bit him, so he moved to another camper in the same "park."

It's pure squalor, and it's in the heart of Ouachita Parish.

Sgt. Wayne Heckford said a few enterprising individuals found a legal loophole and capitalized.

Heckford works with the Ouachita Parish Sheriff's Office and handles code enforcement. He said his office is working with the environmental court to fix the problem — either through the sites shutting down or by getting the places permitted and up to code.

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The loophole on these properties is that there appears to either already be a permit or utilities already have been run to the site, Mitchell and Heckford said. Then they bring in older RVs, travel trailers or portable buildings. They run the electrical connection from the existing house or trailer to the additional ones.

In 2018, Heckford said, at least two power meters burst into flames because too many mobile homes were hooked up to the box. It overloaded.