Filthy Manteca Mobile Home Park Targeted By State Inspectors
MANTECA (CBS13) - They've been living in filth but for free, but now the state is ready to clear out a Manteca mobile home park allegedly filled with squatters.
The owner of Sleepy Hollow mobile home park says almost everyone living there is squatting. Now, almost every mobile home has been tagged by the state for health and safety violations .
State housing inspectors came knocking on just about ever door at Sleepy Hollow after finding raw sewage on the property in a previous visit.
"They came and they put a sticker on the door saying 'it's gotta go,'" resident Sarah Hill said.
The orange tags posted signify that the trailers violate health and safety codes. The property owner and tenants say almost all the people living in the 21-unit park are squatters.
"These trailers here, people move in and the manger didn't know their names, didn't get rental agreements, (they) didn't pay nothing," longtime resident Betty Tankersley said.
Having moved in decades ago, Tankersley says she's one of the few who isn't squatting.
"It's not right because I've been paying 42 years," she said.
Since squatters took over, she says the park on Moffat Boulevard has become a hotbed of problems.
"It used to be a nice, quiet place, but now it's like the ghettos, you know?" she said.
The park's owner says he's had a tough time clearing out the unwelcomed neighbors.
"I'm sick. I need help," Mahesh Gogri said.
But he vows to clean up the place that's now filled with trash.
"It's going to be the Taj Mahal pretty soon, that's all I can tell you," he said.
Residents aren't convinced.
"I doubt that very seriously," Hill said. "It would be nice in theory, but I don't see it happening."
Residents have until next week to comply with the state or be towed out.
