SPRINGFIELD — The view from Belal Awkal's back window on Jefferson Avenue is littered with bottles, cans, old computers, mattresses, couch cushions, tires and more.

Awkal's backyard along with four or five others on the street have become a dumping ground for refuse along a small strip of land owned by the city.

"People come in the afternoon or at night, they sneak up with pick-up trucks and just dump things there," he said. Awkal started a weekly clean up effort on Main Street last summer, but after several meetings the group started dwindling until he was doing it on his own.

Most of the homes where the trash is being dumped are owned by landlords that do not live in the city or care about the state of the neighborhood, said Ward 1 City Councilor Zaida Luna. She said for the past three years she has been trying to get the city to clean up the land or sell or give it to the landlords so they can be made responsible for it.

"Most of these houses don't have fences so people come in and out. The city is not cleaning it, the landlords are not cleaning it, something has to be done," she said.

Luna is teaming up with Keep Springfield Beautiful President and Ward 3 City Councilor Melvin Edwards, Springfield Police Ordinance Officer Ivan Rosas and local community leaders Ivette Hernandez and Giselle Vizcarrondo to host regular clean ups in the community.

Hernandez was shocked when she went behind one of the homes Friday afternoon and saw half a dozen mattresses, old couches, and all sorts of trash piled several feet high.

"This is unacceptable. We cannot have children playing back there, people should not have to live with that," she said.

Hernandez said this is about more than cleaning up the neighborhood.

"It's about building community. First you clean up the streets and then you can fight for other things," she said.

She will be working with local community agencies Neighbor to Neighbor and NEON to organize larger scale clean ups this summer.

Vizcarrondo will be heading up clean up efforts in the South End. She is counting on youth leaders as well as volunteers from the Hampden County Sheriff's Department to get it on the clean up.

"This is about taking pride in our community. It's about caring for the place where we live," she said.

Edwards said the overall goal of Keep Springfield Beautiful is to make all neighborhoods in the city safe and clean for residents.

"People in this neighborhood deserve services just like anybody else," he said. "It's a pubic heath issue, there are children playing here, this is their backyard and it needs to be addressed."

Luna and Edwards plan to discuss this further with the city's Code Enforcement Department.

To find out how to contribute to the cause through donations or volunteering contact Edwards at (413) 733-2664 or email melvinspeaks@msn.com.