Oasis Mobile Home Park residents reach settlement in lawsuit over issues with water and habitability
22 residents of the long-troubled Oasis Mobile Home Park, along with a tenant association called Juntos Por Un Mejor Oasis, settled their civil suit against the park's owners.
Oasis Mobile Home Park has been a fixture of controversy for years, most recently due to high levels of arsenic in drinking water, resulting in three emergency administrative orders issued by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency between 2019 and 2021, barring use of the underground reservoir there.
The lawsuit sought remedies for exposure to arsenic at nearly 10 times the drinking water limit, sewage spills, and other unacceptable and unlawful problems.
According to the Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability, the settlement agreement includes enforceable commitments by the park's owners that protect residents from retaliation, rent increases, and eviction, provides other tenant protections, and resolves litigation arising from a long history of environmental and habitability issues.
The settlement agreement also resolves civil litigation filed by residents, represented by Leadership Counsel for Justice and Accountability and Sher Edling LLP, in January 2021.
Portions of the settlement are confidential, the organization said, but the negotiated tenant protections are expressly public. These include the following commitments by Park owners:
- Not to retaliate against the Plaintiffs or any member of Juntos Por Un Mejor Oasis for participation in the suit;
- Not to evict any resident of Oasis Mobile Home Park, except for nonpayment of rent after 30 days written notice and opportunity to enroll in a payment plan;
- Not to raise space rent more than once annually, capped at 5% per year and following 90 days written notice;
- Not to take any action or threaten to lock out tenants or disconnect electricity or other utilities for nonpayment of rent;
- Only to charge for rent, utilities, and incidental reasonable charges for services actually rendered, and to stop charging an “IID Fee” not actually charged by Imperial Irrigation District; and
- Not to exclude representatives of the plaintiffs from the Park for the purpose of meetings in their spaces.
Representatives of the residents touted the settlement as a critical step forward.
Juntos Por Un Mejor Oasis and the other plaintiffs, secured the agreement after nearly five years of advocacy to ensure that all Oasis Mobile Home Park residents secure safe homes with access to clean water and adequate sanitation.
“We hope that the settlement agreement is honored in its entirety, ensuring the prevention of retaliation, among other protections,” Juntos released in a joint statement. “This agreement must be accompanied by extensive efforts to ensure relocation of current residents, prevention of new residents moving into the park, and ultimately the closure of the park.”
Representatives said the settlement does not resolve an ongoing federal lawsuit brought by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) against the park's owners related to water and septic tank problems.
It also does not conclude Riverside County’s efforts to relocate current residents and enforce a moratorium on new families moving into Oasis Mobile Home Park.
In the last three years, over 350 people from 72 households have been relocated out of the facility, according to officials. At least 200 trailers remain occupied at the site, located on 60 acres in the 88-700 block of Avenue 70, within the Torres-Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indian Tribe's reservation in Thermal.
Last year, the Riverside County Board of Supervisors signed off on a compact with the tribe to work on preventing repopulation of the park through enforcement measures, including the demolition of some unoccupied trailers.
Officials with Juntos Por Un Mejor Oasis said they look forward to working with Riverside County, EPA, the Torres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indian Tribe, and other stakeholders to ensure that all remaining residents are relocated to safe and affordable housing.
Stay with News Channel 3 for continuing coverage.
Since November, the EPA found water containing arsenic levels above federal legal limits in at least seven mobile home parks. In May 2022, I-Team investigator Peter Daut took an in-depth look at the water issues in the East Valley.
