Duroville relocation effort suffers blow | The Desert Sun
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The push to close the notorious “Duroville” trailer park in Thermal and relocate thousands of its low-income residents to a safer haven has hit a major road block.
State finance officials have announced the $12.1 million in redevelopment dollars set aside to buy 181 new double-wide mobile homes for the mass-relocation effort is no longer available.
But local officials need those dollars to help move the Duroville community, and its unique indigenous Purepecha residents, to the new “Mountain View” mobile home park being built nearby in Oasis.
The Riverside County Redevelopment Agency already has spent at least $6.5 million for roads, a community center and other improvements there.
But state officials are phasing out redevelopment in California, and they've ruled the $12.1 million for the new mobile homes an “unenforceable obligation.”
County economic development officials secured the loan agreement for the homes on Jan. 25, missing a June 27, 2011, deadline for such contracts under the laws passed last year to end redevelopment, California Finance Department spokesman H.D. Palmer said.
Local economic development officials vow they'll appeal the decision.
“We believe quite strongly that it is an enforceable obligation,” said John Aguilar, deputy director for housing for the county's Economic Development Agency.
The county Board of Supervisors voted on a series of actions going back to 2008 that “established the path of funding for the Mountain View project” — and the loan agreement for the new homes is connected to the previous spending, Aguilar explained.
He declined to comment on what could happen if the appeal fails.
“I just don't think I could go there mentally, at this point,” Aguilar said. “For the families — it would be horrendous for the families.”
Duroville, a sprawling park on the Torres Martinez tribal reservation that presently has about 200 dilapidated trailers, grew infamous in recent years for its health and safety hazards — and the lack of any affordable housing alternatives for its residents.
In 2007, the U.S. Attorney's Office sued to shut down the park because of its dangerous conditions.
In 2009, U.S. District Judge Stephen G. Larson granted Duroville a two-year reprieve to repair the park and bring it up to code, giving residents time to find a new place to live before the park shuts down for good.
Delays in building sewer lines at Mountain View have pushed that back further.
The park is supposed to be the solution to Duroville. Its 181-unit first phase could accommodate Duroville's tight-knit Purepecha residents: a fiercely independent, hard-working indigenous community from the mountains of Michoacán, Mexico.
The county hopes to start moving residents to Mountain View later this year and close Duroville as early as 2013.
Residents would pay rent and taxes there, and then own the homes outright after 45 years, Aguilar said.
The holdup on the mobile home funding was announced in federal district court last week during a status hearing on the progress to close Duroville.
On Thursday, U.S. District Court Judge David T. Bristow called the state's decision “sad” and “ironic” since scuttling redevelopment was aimed, in part, at helping more of California's neediest residents.
“Despite this news, I'm an optimist” a solution could be reached, Bristow added.
What happens next on the homes and the funding could become clearer at the next hearing, slated for May 23 in Riverside.
Desert Sun reporter Marcel Honoré can be reached at (760) 778-4649 or marcel...@thedesertsun.com and Twitter @marcelhonore