The Riverside County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to provide funds by early next year to help 12 families from the ailing Oasis Mobile Home Park find better living conditions.
Clean water issues have plagued Oasis Mobile Home Park for more than three years. The Environmental Protection Agency found high levels of arsenic in the park’s drinking water.
The district announced in August that it plans to close the RV park and relocate all of its residents.
Last year, the state provided the county with a $30 million grant to provide relocation assistance to the more than 200 families, nearly 1,100 people, who live at the RV park.
CHECK OUT: ‘Needs to be changed’ Oasis MHP residents urge faster response to improve living conditions
In June 2022, the board approved the use of $7 million of this grant for the first phase of an affordable housing plan for residents.
On Tuesday, the board approved the use of 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 at Oasis. All 12 pitches are reserved for residents of the Oasis Mobile Home Park.
The mobile home park will be located at 85-701 Middleton Road in the unincorporated community of Oasis. The park is designed by Jesus Montanez.
According to Supervisor Manuel Perez’s office, this new mobile home park will be hooked up to the Coachella Valley Water District’s water and sewer lines and will also feature a new electrical system and paved roads.
The funding will help a dozen families move out of the RV park faster.
County officials also mentioned that they are working with Polanco parks to approve and improve them. Polanco Parks will have approximately 18 RV parks that will help ensure more Oasis Mobile Home Park families have the opportunity to move sooner rather than wait years.
“I think we’ve come a long way, we still have a long way to go”
– Supervisor Manuel Perez
“The importance here is that while we have plans to build homes that will last a year or more (two, three, four, five years), we’re also working with our Polanco parks as well, one here to their efforts.” to move forward and ensure that we may be able to move out of Oasis Mobile Home Park sooner and not have to wait over a year. Maybe we can do that 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 residents of the Oasis Mobile Home Park in the past few months.
Meetings will continue to be held monthly, with the next meeting scheduled for November 30th.
The director of the county’s housing division also reported that since January 2021, the county has helped relocate 49 families from Oasis Mobile Home Park to Mountain View Estates, an RV park equipped with necessary infrastructure and community facilities.
Another 21 families are waiting for a new home in Mountain View Estates. At the start of the Oasis Mobile Home Park relocation process there were 235 occupied mobile homes and currently 219 are occupied.
EAST VALLEY WATER WOES
The Oasis MHP isn’t the only area affected by the issue. More than 115 communities in the eastern Coachella Valley were affected, I-Team investigator Peter Daut learned last month.
Since November, the EPA has found water with arsenic levels above federal legal limits at at least seven trailer parks.
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