Riverside County approves $279K to move 12 families living in Oasis Mobile Home Park
The Riverside County Board of Supervisors unanimously voted to allocate funding to move 12 families from the troubled Oasis Mobile Home Park into better living conditions by early next year.
The Oasis Mobile Home Park has been plagued by issues with clean water for more than three years. The Environmental Protection Agency found high levels of arsenic in the park's drinking water.
The county announced in August that it plans to close the mobile home park and move all its residents.
Last year, the state provided a $30 million grant to the county to provide relocation assistance to the more than 200 families, nearly 1,100 individuals, that live in the mobile home park.
In June 2022, the board approved using $7 million of that grant for the first phase of a plan for affordable housing for the residents.
On Tuesday, the board approved using an additional $279,000 from the $30 million grant to complete the development of a 12-space mobile home park, the Maria y Jose Mobile Home Park in Oasis. All 12 spaces will be reserved for Oasis Mobile Home Park residents.
The mobile home park will be located at 85-701 Middleton Road in the unincorporated community of Oasis. The park is being developed by Jesus Montanez.
According to Supervisor Manuel Perez's office, this new mobile home park will connect to Coachella Valley Water District water and sewer lines, and will also be installed with a new electrical system and paved roads.
The funding will help a dozen families more quickly move out of the mobile home park.
County representatives also mentioned that they are working with Polanco parks to get them permitted and improved. Polanco Parks will have approximately 18 mobile home parks which will help provide the option for more Oasis Mobile Home Park families to move sooner rather than waiting years.
“I think we’ve come a long way, we still have a ways to go"
- Supervisor manuel perez
“The importance here is that, although we have plans to build housing which is going to take a year out or longer than that (two, three, four, five years out), we’re also working with our Polanco parks just like this one here to advance their efforts to make sure that we’re able to move folks from Oasis Mobile Home Park maybe sooner, and not have to wait over a year. Maybe we can do it within six months,” Perez said.
Heidi Marshall, director of the Riverside County Housing and Workforce Solutions Department, reported that there have been three community meetings with Oasis Mobile Home Park residents held in recent months.
The meetings will continue to be held monthly, with the next meeting scheduled November 30.
The county’s housing department director also reported that, since January 2021, the county has assisted with relocating 49 families from Oasis Mobile Home Park to Mountain View Estates, a mobile home park equipped with necessary infrastructure as well as community amenities.
Another 21 families are awaiting new homes at Mountain View Estates. At the start of the Oasis Mobile Home Park relocation process, there were 235 occupied mobile homes and, as of now, 219 are in occupancy.
EAST VALLEY WATER WOES
The Oasis MHP isn't the only area affected by the issue. As I-Team investigator Peter Daut learned last month, more than 115 communities in the eastern Coachella Valley affected.
Since November, the EPA found water containing arsenic levels above federal legal limits in at least seven mobile home parks.
Stay with News Channel 3 for continuing updates.
