THE DESERT SUN (Palm Springs, California)

October 6, 2008

Duroville managers to present progress report today

Managers of a mobile home park that federal prosecutors want shut down because of health and safety violations are scheduled to present a federal judge today with documents showing progress is being made toward improving conditions at the dilapidated facility.

At a hearing in early September, the management team for the Desert Mobile Home Park in Thermal -- better known as ``Duroville'' -- told U.S. District Court Judge Stephen G. Larson that a $3 million loan had been tentatively approved to cover modifications at the park, but the lender was holding the money back until it was clear who will be managing the park over the life of the loan.

Duroville Renaissance Corp., a nonprofit entity formed specifically to sort out Duroville's problems, is seeking a lease agreement with park owner Harvey Duro to assure that the DRC will oversee operations at the park for the next 10 years.

But the agreement has been challenged by the U.S. Attorney's Office and the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs.

In April, Larson denied a U.S. Attorney's Office request to immediately shut down Duroville, which government lawyers argued had reached a state of irreversible disrepair, and instead laid out 21 conditions owner Harvey Duro would need to meet in three months to prevent closure.

Larson has since acknowledged that more time may be needed.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Leon Weidman complained on Sept. 8 that in the four months since Larson's order, Duro and the DRC had not followed through on
providing plans for rehabilitating park infrastructure.

Weidman cited the lack of an environmental assessment to gauge the impact of park operations on the water supply and soil, lack of a formal business plan to show how future cash flow will be generated and spent, and a lack of progress toward paving roads that can support emergency vehicles.

He said the Bureau of Indian Affairs, on whose behalf the U.S. Attorney's Office filed a lawsuit in October seeking a permanent injunction to halt operations at Duroville, could not endorse an agreement between Duro and the DRC, making the latter the new lessor, until there was more evidence of a good faith effort to improve conditions at the park.

Attorney Mark Adams, the head of DRC, rejected the government's claims, saying the park had come a long way in a few short months.

The attorney said sewage ponds at Duroville had been cleared of tons of debris and vegetation. He said roads had been graded and new access ways opened up to facilitate emergency vehicles coming and going. Eviction procedures had been formalized, Adams said, enabling park managers to remove problem tenants.

He said five auto-related businesses that posed environmental risks to tenants had been served with eviction notices, but three were resisting. Larson issued an affirmation of the eviction order immediately after the hearing.

DRC spokesman Tom Flynn said Orange County-based Clearinghouse Community Development Financial Institution has given preliminary approval to a $3 million loan to cover the cost of engineering studies and physical improvements at the park, which rents collected from tenants will not cover.

DFI comprises a consortium of banks -- among them Wachovia, Washington Mutual and Wells Fargo -- that pool funds to underwrite low-income neighborhood
projects under the federal Community Reinvestment Act.

Duroville, a 40-acre property located on the Torres-Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indian Reservation, is home to between 3,000 and 5,000 migrant workers and their families.

The park has nearly 300 trailers -- many of them more than 50 years old -- stacked in tight proximity, with leaky pipes and propane tanks located underneath many of them. A number of trailers have been destroyed in fires over the last few years.

According to Weidman, federal authorities have tried in vain for five years to reach compromise solutions with Duro to salvage the park.

Larson has set a tentative Dec. 16 trial date to give the government a chance to argue its case for a permanent injunction against operations at Duroville. The parties are scheduled to appear for a pretrial conference Nov. 24.