Supervisors OK use of a $30 million state grant to relocate residents of the troubled Oasis Mobile Home Park

The Board of Supervisors approved the use of a $30 million state grant for efforts to relocate hundreds of people from the hazard-plagued Oasis Mobile Home Park in Thermal, though the process of clearing the 60-acre space is already facing potential hurdles.    

"There's nothing to stop the current owners and operators from allowing other people to move in there," County Counsel Greg Priamos told the board ahead of its 4-0 vote. "We may never get off this merry-go-round."

The park is situated on a segment of the Torres-Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indian Tribe's reservation, in the 88700 block of Avenue 70. However, while about two-thirds of the property is within tribal jurisdiction, the balance is on "fee land," which is privately owned and not under direct tribal governance.    

That division has led to complications in determining how to permanently shutter the park and prevent changes in habitation, according to officials.

Priamos said there's a push for attorneys tied to all the various interests, including owners or investors who are deceased and their estates in probate, to come together and hammer out a workable plan to padlock the property and prevent further residency.    

"We need to start discussing where do we go from here," the chief counsel told the board, indicating that a meeting of legal representatives is tentatively planned for early December.

Under the state grant, which was awarded as part of an amended budget bill this year with specific earmarks to resolve the Oasis conundrum, the county Department of Housing, Homelessness Prevention & Workforce Solutions is tasked with finding alternate living arrangements for between 1,000 and 2,000 park residents, most of them field workers and their families, residing in about 350 mobile homes.

The park has no state or federal business permits, although the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs has reportedly attempted to enforce some authority over its operation in the last decade or so, without success.

"The park has a long history of health and safety problems, but none bigger than the unsafe water conditions that exist at the park," according to an HHPWS statement posted to the board's agenda.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has conducted multiple samplings of water supplies at the location, most recently last month, and discovered arsenic levels 10 times the federal threshold for safe consumption.

According to the EPA, Arsenic is a known carcinogen, and drinking high levels over many years can increase the chance of lung, bladder, and skin cancers, as well as heart disease, diabetes, and neurological damage

In 2019 and into 2020, an emergency was declared because of exposure concerns, culminating in the county trucking water into the facility for months, costing tens of thousands of dollars.

"The issue of arsenic has not changed, there are still high levels of the water and besides they have problems with the drainage," Nataly Escobedo Garcia, water coordinator for the Leadership Council, told Telemundo 15's Marco Revuelta on July 2, 2021.

In January 2021, 20 Oasis Mobile Home Park residents filed a lawsuit due to unsafe and unhealthy living conditions against the landlord due to the unsafe conditions.

In July 2021, Congressman Dr. Raul Ruiz said that local BIA leadership allowed the owners of Oasis Mobile Home park to operate without a business license and with unsafe conditions for more than 13 years before the park faced a contaminated water issue.

The park bears similarities to the Desert Mobile Home Park, better known as "Duroville," that was also on Torres-Martinez land.    

That facility, which was at the time rife with electrical and water deficiencies, was the subject of federal civil action that concluded in 2009 and culminated in the park going into receivership, out of tribal control. Four years later, it was permanently shut down.    

Priamos noted that in the Duroville matter, an injunction prohibited any new tenancy at the park once the litigation was completed. He said the BIA does not appear intent on seeking a similar judicial order for Oasis

"That's where we stand," he told the board. "There are some very significant concerns."

According to HHPWS Director Heidi Marshall, the near-term plan under the state grant is to find temporary housing for current Oasis residents, and in the long-run, the goal is to increase the availability of affordable housing where they might be able to become rent-paying tenants.

For our Spanish speakers, you can learn more about the plan to move Oasis' residents through Telemundo 15's story on July 2, 2021.