Kony 2012 Intern House in La Mesa Draws Complaints From Neighbors

The Kony 2012 campaign is in the news again, but this time with a more local, and less controversial angle.

Friday, U-T San Diego reported that a La Mesa home that is inhabited by interns for Invisible Children, is receiving complaints from some neighbors.

The newspaper reports that at any given time, as many as 40-60 interns live in the three-bedroom house in a cul-de-sac on Maiden Lane in La Mesa. It also offered a video tour of the home.

Known as the "Roadie House," the home serves as housing for a small army of full-time volunteers for Invisible Children, the San Diego nonprofit whose "Kony 2012" video went viral earlier this year, getting around 85 million views over the course of about two weeks.

According to the newspaper, the city is getting complaints claiming that the interns are "spilling litter into the street, chatting on cell phones at all hours, and generally overrunning the neighborhood."

The reports also say that "the situation is quickly deteriorating."

Other neighbors offer a different view.

“They’re really nice, they’re really respectful,” Helix High junior Stephanie Green, who lives across the street, told the paper. “They’re nice-spirited and they’re not loud.”

Bill Chopyk, the La Mesa community development director, told the paper that there are currently no laws limiting the amount of people that can legally live in a single-family home, and that there have twice been inspections of the property addressing complaints that have found nothing in the way of being out compliance with city laws and codes. 

“I understand the concern, but there’s no violation of any ordinance that we can enforce,” Chopyk said. “We do not regulate how many people can live in a house. We can’t.”

The Kony 2012 campaign continues to feel the glare of the public microscope. After the initial video was released in March, it became the fastest-growing viral video of all-time. The group drew criticism that it was misrepresenting the issue of Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony. They claim the goal of the video was to raise awareness of the genocide of a generation of children in the war-torn country, and calling for Kony's arrest.

The group released a Part II of the video in April, which addresed the criticism and implored people to take action. In mid-March, Invisible Children founder Jason Russell was hospitalized after he was, shouting incoherently and pounding the pavement with his fists. He was treated for extreme exhaustion and dehydration.

Russell co-founded the organization with Laren Poole who attended Helix Charter High School.