They say the Dunedin City Council is refusing to acknowledge rubbish being collected and dumped in the city centre poses an environmental hazard.
No6 The Lane owner Colin Sanders said he and his staff regularly found piles of rubbish outside the clothing shop, including on Thursday morning.
He showed the Otago Daily Times several hoards of rubbish stacked in Albion Place and Albion Lane and pointed out areas where rat bait had been set by retailers disgusted at finding vermin around their businesses.
A homeless man who was obsessed with collecting rubbish and was well known by city councillors and police officers continually left bags and boxes of garbage in the area, Mr Sanders said.
Retailers had collection systems for their business waste, but the man often shifted it around so it was not collected.
He also brought rubbish from elsewhere and stashed it in Albion Place and Albion Lane, Mr Sanders said.
The shop owner said rubbish problems had intensified over the past five years and countless appeals to the council for help had been in vain.
"I've had council staff down here and shown them what it is like, but they just throw their hands in the air and say it is not an environmental hazard. Environmental Health say it's not their problem, but I think it is," Mr Sanders said.
He and other retailers signed trespass notices against the rubbish hoarder.
Mr Sanders said he understood it was a difficult problem to resolve, but the council and police should be doing more to help retailers in their efforts to keep the area clean.
"We've seen rats running around here. It's ridiculous, it's a disgrace. You can't have this stuff lying around in the middle of the city," he said.
Other retailers spoken to this week reiterated Mr Sanders' concern and frustration.
Dunedin City Council environmental health team leader Ros MacGill said she was well aware of the homeless man allegedly causing problems in the area, as he was known to do throughout Dunedin's commercial zones.
Ms MacGill said the council advised retailers about managing waste to alleviate the issue, but it was "pretty tricky" to resolve altogether.
"The man has been on our books for a long, long time and moves from one place to another collecting rubbish. We try to make sure it doesn't become an environmental issue, but if we move him out of Albion Lane, he'll just go somewhere else," she said.
Ms MacGill said rubbish should be stored in locked containers until collected, although she acknowledged that was not always practical.
As for waste attracting rats, she said no environmental health team members had seen rodents running around Albion Place, or noticed any other "serious" environmental health concerns there.
Senior Sergeant Mel Aitken said all Dunedin police officers knew the man who hoarded the rubbish, and often arrested him and charged him with trespassing and theft.
Police were "proactive" in dealing with him, she said.
"We deal with him quite a lot. He has some obvious issues, but he certainly does get charged ..."
Crime prevention measures included making sure the man could not access properties, particularly at the rear, and installing security cameras or floodlighting, she said.
"He tends to go places where he can't be seen."
