A group of Fresno County residents is suing the Shady Lakes Mobile Home Park, claiming property managers unfairly hiked rent prices and harassed tenants.

Several of the residents interviewed by The Bee said they have been threatened with eviction notices. Many of them also received a seven-day notice to comply with several rules, including permanently removing “Christmas lights hanging in front of the house and carport” or face eviction, according to a copy of one of the notices.

“We want justice for all of this, and we want things to get resolved,” one resident told The Bee in Spanish. “We don’t want them to increase the rent again because they are increasing it significantly.”

Residents asked not to be identified by name in the lawsuit and also asked not to be named in this story over concerns of retaliation and possible eviction.

In a statement to The Bee, company representatives denied many of the residents’ claims.

“We are not asking the tenants to move. No tenants have given notice to move out since we took over the community, and none have asked for rent accommodations due to hardship,” the emailed statement said. “Our attorneys are reviewing the document submitted by the tenant’s counsel, but we believe the claims are unfounded. For example, we have no way of knowing which residents are involved—their attorney has not divulged this information—so any claims of retaliation are simply not true.”

The company also said they have not filed any evictions.

The lawsuit, filed Dec. 19 in Fresno County Superior Court, involves numerous residents at the mobile home park, only identified collectively as “Grupo Comunitario De San Miguel Cuevas.” San Miguel Cuevas is the town in Oaxaca where they’re originally from.

The suit names as defendants Shady Lakes LLC, KMLM Investors LCC and Harmony Communities, Inc.

Shady Lakes LLC and KMLM Investors LCC bought the Shady Lakes Mobile Home Park in Fresno in April 2019, and Harmony Communities, Inc., operates and manages the mobile home park, according to the lawsuit.

The lawsuit

The Bee interviewed nine residents, all of whom said they’ve been hit with significant rent increases by the new owners. They also said the park authorities refuse to provide notices in Spanish.

An attorney representing the residents said the case highlights the disparity in housing protections faced by mobile home residents.

The attorney, Mariah C. Thompson, works with California Rural Legal Assistance. She said it’s difficult to enforce mobile home park rights because oversight falls to local cities and counties that often don’t have the resources to enforce them.

“Ultimately what happens is residents are responsible for upholding their own rights and seeking judicial adjudication of their rights, which is very difficult because mobile home residents are some of the most vulnerable populations..., and do not have access to the legal system, normally,” she said.

Recent California laws offering rent control and just-cause eviction protections don’t apply to mobile home parks, she said.

“What that means is that there is sort of a justice gap ... where other types of renters in the state are able to get these very important protections, the mobile home parks are left in a different situation,” she said.

Residents question rent hike

The lawsuit claims Harmony Communities increased rent by 32% soon after taking over the property. The lawsuit also claims Harmony Communities sent residents leases without terms that are required under the law.

In late January, residents received another notice increasing their rent again, bring it up to $595, Thompson said.

Residents paid $395 under the previous owners, less than a year ago.

Thompson described the $200 monthly increase as “brutal.”

Shady Lakes said the company provides some of the most affordable housing in the area. Company officials noted the $595 monthly rent is below market value for the area and includes “no additional charges water, sewer and garbage services,” which say are collectively worth about $100 per month.

“The park has been operating at a significant loss which we are attempting to remedy,” the company said in the statement. “It is our goal to keep future rent increases in line with inflation. We take pride in Shady Lakes, and it is our priority to ensure residents enjoy both affordable as well as safe and pleasant living conditions.”

The company said it has issued “cleanliness notices” to four residents, to keep their porches clean and sanitary. Those notices, the company said, include statutorily required language, but they are not eviction notices.

“It’s discrimination against us,” the 38-year-old father said in Spanish.

The 53-year-old man said all residents who are part of the lawsuit work in the field seasonally.

A 51-year-old resident said he fears he won’t be able to afford the new price.

“With the job that we have, it won’t be enough,” he said in Spanish.

Residents call new park rules ‘oppressive’

The residents’ attorney also said conditions at the park did not justify the significant rent hike. She said the sewage system was malfunctioning for at least eight months, and the park was “inundated with as smell of human sewage.”

The residents’ attorney reported the sewage odor to the Central Valley Regional Water Board in June and July 2019. The Central Valley Regional Water Board inspected the park and issued a notice of violation for public nuisance due to the odor. The Central Valley Regional Water Board cited the park owners for 31 violations over their waste discharge requirements, according to the lawsuit.

Additionally, Harmony Communities allegedly didn’t maintain the common areas at the mobile home park in good condition. The management company has failed to maintain roads and street lights at the property, according to the lawsuit.

The management company also instituted 29 rules, which were described in the lawsuit as “burdensome, unreasonable, oppressive, and unnecessary.”

Thompson described the rules as “impermissible,” and said the management company issued notices to residents in violation of those rules.

The rules include requiring residents to take down Christmas lights and remove their boots from porches outside their homes, according to Thompson, who noted residents are primarily farmworkers who typically leave their boots outside so they don’t track pesticides inside their homes.

Many of the residents have received notices requesting their gates be left unlocked at all times, and have had personnel with the company enter their private property and “take photos of everything around their house,” Thompson said.

Company officials said they have spent more than $250,000 over the past nine months, making improvements, including upgrading the sewer treatment plant, roofs, lighting in common areas and renovations to the laundry room.

Additionally, residents said the company refuses to provide any documents in Spanish, which their attorneys says is required by law, according to the lawsuit.

The company, however, maintains the law doesn’t require them to provide Spanish-language documents.

“Shady Lakes is a small company, without the resources or ability to undertake a task of translating hundreds of pages of documents. Further California law does not require the translation of documents to a language other than English.”

A couple who has four children and has lived at the mobile home park for about six years, said they have to choose between buying items their children need or having enough money to pay the rent.

A case management conference is scheduled in court for this case on April 22, according to court records.

Yesenia Amaro

559-441-6144

Yesenia Amaro covers immigration and diverse communities for The Fresno Bee. She previously worked for the Phnom Penh Post in Cambodia and the Las Vegas Review-Journal in Nevada. She recently received the 2018 Journalistic Integrity award from the CACJ. In 2015, she won the Outstanding Journalist of the Year Award from the Nevada Press Association, and also received the Community Service Award.