- Subscribe: Digital / Home Delivery
- Log In
- Register Now
- Help
Budget Crisis Takes Toll on Community for California Farmworkers
A man waits with his grandson at the school bus stop in Duroville. When one family leaves, no new residents are allowed to move in. The abandoned trailers are usually picked over for spare furniture, fixtures and sheet metal. More Photos »
By JENNIFER MEDINA
Published: May 27, 2012 68 Comments
THERMAL, Calif. — To understand the conditions at the Duroville mobile-home park here, a half-hour drive from Palm Springs, Calif., just look at the windows. Dotting the walls are stretches of plywood, cardboard, blankets and even tinfoil. Replacing the glass just costs too much for many of the residents to consider.
Multimedia
Related
This Land: Beside a Smoldering Dump, a Refuge of Sorts (October 21, 2007)
Readers' Comments
Share your thoughts.
Duroville is a collection of more than 200 trailers that serve as homes for farmworkers who, at this time of year, work 12-hour days plucking grapes and digging up onions in triple-digit temperatures. There is no sewerage: a patchwork of plastic pipes repaired with duct tape winds underground to a swampy pond. Cars kick up a load of dust on the dirt road, which quickly turns to mud when it rains. And this, it should be noted, is an improvement.
By now, residents were supposed to be getting ready to move out, to a new mobile-home park that would seem luxurious by comparison. But that plan has suddenly been delayed by bureaucratic regulations that stem from California's financial struggles.
A federal judge ruled in 2009 that conditions in Duroville were so bad that residents should be relocated "with all deliberate speed." Reasoning that there would be a "humanitarian crisis" without a suitable alternative, the judge said that replacement affordable housing had to be available for Duroville's families, who now pay about $375 a month in rent and utilities.
Riverside County officials stepped in with a plan: they would use redevelopment funds to entice a new builder to create a mobile-home development. They figured that the project would cost about $28 million in federal and statemoney and take about two years to built. Clearly, that was optimistic.
The first troubles arose in 2010, when officials assumed they could count on federal financing, which was later lost amid the debates over earmarks. The money eventually came through, paying for a sewer and water system on the new property.
But last year, Gov. Jerry Brown moved to shut down redevelopment agencies in the state, saying that the money often went to needless projects like downtown bars and would be better used to finance schools, particularly with the state facing a budget crisis.
John J. Benoit, a member of the county's Board of Supervisors, bristles at that kind of attack. In the area he represents, which stretches to the eastern edge of California, redevelopment money is used primarily for housing — often for farmworkers who live in squalid conditions.
"You can't possibly look at this and say that it's not a good use of money," Mr. Benoit said one recent morning as he led a tour of the area. "Everyone has to live somewhere," adding that "people deserve basic services just like everyone else."
The state will now disburse money only for existing contracts. Because Riverside did not approve a $12 million contract for the new homes until January, it will not get any of the funds, officials said last month.
The county says the state's standard is absurd because the project has been in the works for more than three years and there was no way to begin installing the homes until the infrastructure was completed last year.
Duroville gets its name from Harvey Duro Sr., the owner of the property and a member ofTorres Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indian Reservation. After Riverside County officials began cracking down on the unauthorized mobile-home parks that dot the Coachella Valley in late 1990s, Mr. Duro made it known that people were welcome to set up homes on his property. Soon, there were more than 400 homes there, with as many as 6,000 residents. A dozen people can be found living in a two-bedroom trailer.
These days, many of the residents work in the service industry, shuttling back and forth to the resorts in Palm Springs and Rancho Mirage. Everyone agrees that conditions have improved since the court ruling.
Tom Flynn, the receiver whom the court set up to oversee the day-to-day operations in Duroville, helped to chase off the drug dealers who used the park as home base. Electric wires that looped around homes like spaghetti have been removed, cutting the risk of fires.
When one family leaves, no new residents are allowed to move in. The abandoned trailers are usually picked over for spare furniture, fixtures and sheet metal.
While he is proud of the changes, Mr. Flynn does not flinch when he describes the place: "It was built like a slum, and it's still a slum. This is what you would expect in the third world, not in modern America."
- 1
- 2
Get Free E-mail Alerts on These Topics
| Ads by Google | what's this? |
| Shreveport Coupons 1 ridiculously huge coupon a day. Like doing Shreveport at 90% off! www.Groupon.com/Shreveport | |
Log in to see what your friends are sharing on nytimes.com.Privacy Policy | What's This?
What's Popular Now 
Log in to discover more articles
based on what you've read.
| Ads by Google | what's this? |
| Free Medicare Plan List Free List of Medicare Advantage & Medicare Part D Plans. Compare Now! PlanPrescriber.com/Medicare | |
INSIDE NYTIMES.COM
OPINION »Op-Ed: The V.A.'s BetrayalToo many veterans struggling to live a normal life find the Department of Veterans Affairs a source of disappointment rather than healing. | OPINION »Editorial: The Politics of ReligionSome Catholic groups claim that the president has violated religious freedom by including contraceptives in health care coverage. |
You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Open Debate Political Forum IMHO" group.
To post to this group, send email to OpenDebateForum@googlegroups.com
To unsubscribe from this group, send email to OpenDebateForum-unsubscribe@googlegroups.com
For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/OpenDebateForum?hl=en
68 Comments
Share your thoughts.