There is a humanitarian crisis in Riverside County that requires immediate state action.
Oasis Mobile Home Park (Oasis MHP), located near the shores of the Salton Sea, is home to hundreds of people, including families, children and essential workers. It is located on tribal land allotted to the individual who owns the park.
Though living conditions at Oasis MHP are appalling, the lack of quality affordable housing in the area makes it impossible for many residents to leave.
Conditions at Oasis MHP are unacceptable and challenge our basic notions of human rights.
The drinking water is contaminated with arsenic at levels nearly ten times the drinking water standard (Oasis MHP is in violation of the Safe Drinking Water Act and subject to an U.S. EPA enforcement order).
Sewage disposal in the Park is provided by a makeshift collection system and series of inadequate septic tanks, causing sewage to pool and cesspools to form.
Water and electricity shut-offs and failures are common. In fact, most of the homes were without water on February 1st.
The unpaved streets flood when it rains and when water pipes burst.
Wild dogs roam unchecked.
Trash is allowed to accumulate in empty spaces, common areas, and at an unpermitted onsite garbage dump.
Oasis MHP fraudulently overcharges residents for electricity, with bills amounting to hundreds of dollars per month.
When residents have raised these issues with Park management, they are told that if they do not like the conditions they can move. Residents have also been subject to retaliatory threats and actions for asserting their rights to potable drinking water and habitable conditions, including rent increases, threats of eviction and fines, and apparent coordination by ownership with immigration authorities.
Based on many years of experience, residents do not trust Oasis ownership and believe that investing public funds in the Park is not a solution.
Oasis MHP residents ask the State to invest immediately in alternative housing options outside Oasis MHP so that they can live free of human rights and civil rights abuses.
At great risk to themselves in light of retaliatory threats and actions, residents of Oasis sued their landlord on January 27, 2021 to hold him accountable.
Now, they need the state’s support to construct affordable housing in the area and to relocate residents.
Accordingly, we request $30 million in state funding to assist in relocation and provide alternative living opportunities. Funding is required for planning, site acquisition, environmental review, construction of quality affordable housing and relocation assistance.
For More Information Contact:
Michael Claiborne
mclaiborne@leadershipcounsel.org
(559) 753-4353
OASIS — Forty-nine organizations and individuals sent a letter to the California Senate and Assembly Budget Committees to ask for funding to relocate residents of Oasis Mobile Home Park in the Eastern Coachella Valley to new quality affordable housing in…
