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Decision for 2,000 Duroville residents set for Thursday
A federal judge is expected to rule Thursday on the fate of Duroville
and the thousands of people who live in the overwhelmed, crowded migrant
farmworker mobile home park on an Indian reservation in the Coachella
Valley.
U.S. District Judge Stephen G. Larson said he will make his decision
after hearing final arguments. The case is unusual and his decision
could affect distressed housing on reservations and federally controlled
land throughout the country.
The federal government and intervener Riverside County want to close the
park near Thermal, citing its faulty sewage, electrical and water
systems.
"Bottom line: It's dangerous," said Thom Mrozek, spokesman for the U.S.
attorney's office in Los Angeles.
Residents want Duroville to stay in operation and get fixed. Early
estimates are that it will take up to $6 million to fix its
infrastructure and mobile home coaches; the government has contended the
costs could be higher.
The county presented Larson with a $15 million low-income housing
relocation development plan to absorb some of Duroville's residents. The
federal government has offered no plan for what to do with them.
Possibilities for Larson range from granting the government's suit to
shut down the park in 90 days; keeping the park open for a limited time
while a relocation plan is solidified; or ordering the park to stay open
with a court-ordered plan for improvement and legalization of its
operation. Combinations of those ideas and others are also as likely.
A 2003 federal court settlement plan to fix the park failed. That led to
the current lawsuit, which in 2008 produced a 90-day improvement plan.
It also faltered and the case wound up in a nonjury trial.
The matter is before Larson because the Desert Mobile Home Park, as it
is formally called, is on the Torres-Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indian
reservation.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs said the park operated illegally without a
lease permit since it started in 1998. It has rejected Duroville's lease
applications.
Duroville, also known as Duros, got the nicknames from owner-manager
Harvey Duro Sr. The judge removed Duro late last year from any
management role for the park, citing his failure to pursue loans that
could have been used to improve it.
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