‘Where are we going to go?’: Cloverdale trailer park residents, some of them elderly and severely ill, face displacement

“I’m just kind of winging it right now,” she said. “I didn’t think this was going to happen. We knew (Gary) was going to sell the place, but he didn’t tell us what was going to happen.”

Julene Gerdes said her family had owned the property since the 1920s and operated a lumber company there for several years before it was turned into an auto wrecking yard.

She said she’s not sure if or when she’ll come into any of the $1.5 million the Clemmers paid her brother.

“I have a motor home here that I got to move out,” she said. “I can’t move it. It costs money so I need some money to move it. I have to move it or I have to leave it. What’s going to happen then?”

Maldonado Lopez lives in a wooden building that occupies two spaces with four other men. The structure is two stories and has four bedrooms, for which he and his housemates pay $1,000.

Maldonado Lopez said when he worked for Gerdes he often removed auto parts from old vehicles or moved the car carcasses from one place to another. He’s not sure what he’s going to do if he’s forced to leave.

He has not worked since Gerdes sold the place and left the area, Maldonado Lopez said. And he’s still waiting for his last month’s pay.

“It’s really hard for me to find work at my age,” he said. “Where are we going to go? It’s too expensive to live anywhere else.”

Gerdes could not be reached for comment for this story. Residents say he no longer lives in Sonoma County.

On a recent evening, many of the residents gathered to speak to Press Democrat reporters about their plight. Many made it clear they would be unable to afford market rents.

Letter of the law?

Median gross rent in Cloverdale from 2017 to 2021 was $1,250, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

Local housing advocates said the move to uproot residents at 890 Rockwell Road is symptomatic of the housing affordability crisis that’s crept into even the most hidden corners of the county.

Karym Sanchez of the North Bay Organizing Project visited the residents last week to discuss their situation. Sanchez said his organization is trying to get Legal Aid of Sonoma County to weigh in and offer some assistance.

Sunny Noh, a supervising attorney of Legal Aid, said her group is currently reviewing the notices and that it’s too early to tell whether the Clemmers are following “the letter of the law.” Noh said in an email that Legal Aid has “concerns about the conditions of the park and how things are proceeding.”

She added that the hand-delivered and mailed notices sent to the residents appear to have been issued by Rebecca Clemmer, and that she hired the Sheriff's Office to serve the notices.

These types of notices are a precursor to evictions proceedings, which can later be enforced by the Sheriff’s Office.

Noh said her main concerns center on the tenants themselves, some of whom have lived there for more than 20 years, despite the property’s substandard conditions. The county’s “constricted housing market” presents an uphill battle to secure housing, she said.

“The residents of this park highlight the vulnerability of low-income tenants and mobile homeowners in this county. We know that many are elderly and/or seriously disabled … It will be incredibly difficult for most, if not all, of these residents to give up their homes and this community, which appears to be quite tight knit and supportive of one another,” she said.

Legal Aid is still determining whether the residents are covered under the state’s Tenant Protection Act.

Supervisor James Gore, whose fourth district encompasses much of northeast Sonoma County, acknowledged that these residents will likely be unable to withstand the “insatiable appetite“ of the local rental market. He said ”hidden places“ such as Gerdes Apartments and Trailer Court can be found all over the county, occupied by thousands.

Gore’s staff have reached out to the trailer park residents and local organizations to help find solutions.

“Our government and nonprofit service providers are there trying to identify housing options for folks,” he said. “Nobody knows how successful that will be … the programs that are offered don’t match the need.”

The homeless option

While the park’s residents are trying to figure out their next steps, the new owners, Rebecca and Curtis Clemmer, say they’re worried about the property’s neglected condition and possible liabilities it could present. During a phone interview, Rebecca Clemmer said she empathizes with the residents but now has a mortgage and has “to get the place cleaned up.”

“We don't know what the houses look like. We don't know what the conditions are on the inside,” she said. “So for our safety, we need to evict them, fix them up so we don't get sued as new landlords.”

Rebecca said she and her husband have been in talks to purchase the property from Gerdes for the past four years and that residents often called to ask about negotiations.

“They had four years to find a place. They knew this day was coming,” she said.

“They knew that new owners were coming in,” she said. “They had more than plenty of notice. Even 60 days is plenty of notice. I didn’t have to give them 60 days. These are trailers that are parked on the property … they can easily pick it up. There’s places for them.”

Clemmer said she suggested to residents places where they can go, including interim housing such as the trailer encampment at the Sonoma County Fairgrounds and the 90-bed emergency shelter site at the county administration complex.

“There’s tents and everything. They can stay there,” she said. “And I told them once we get the park cleaned up, they’re more than welcome to come back.”

Clemmer said she gave residents a letter on July 28 to let them know she and her husband would need to clean up the park. Clemmer said she and her husband tried to talk to residents in person the next day but “no one wanted to talk to us until I got them served.”

The residents said they found notices taped to their doors by Sonoma County Sheriff’s deputies on Aug. 1.

Jade Weymouth, executive director of the Cloverdale-based nonprofit La Familia Sana, said immigrant families and older individuals often face evictions when owners upgrade their properties.

Weymouth said more attention needs to be on the economic circumstances and forces that put their housing at risk.

“There’s a pattern and cycle, particularly with the seniors in our community — they’re on the brink of eviction and/or becoming homeless,” Weymouth said. “There’s been a lot of conversation about getting people off the street. There needs to be more conversation about how to keep people from becoming homeless in the first place.”

Weymouth added that the impact of evictions and the county’s ever-increasing cost of housing is tearing families and communities apart.

“We have families leaving the county because they can’t find places to live,” she said. “We have kids being uprooted from their schools and their friends. We have seniors who have lived here for over 20 years who now are completely displaced and don’t have their own support system.”

Curtis Clemmer declined to comment on his attempt to clear the trailer park but defended his plans for the property. He said his purchase and plans for the site were an effort to bring much needed improvements to the neighborhood for other residents who live in that community.

“We’re trying to help the county clean up a yard that was in violation for years,” Clemmer said, referring to previous violations at the wrecking yard.

Deputy Rob Dillion, a spokesman for the Sonoma County Sheriff’s Office, said that since 2003, there have been 228 calls for service at the trailer park address. Since the start of 2022, there have been 14 calls for service, he added.

“I would consider that a lot,” he said.

A handful of residents have had numerous run-ins with the law: DUIs, battery, possession of drugs with intent to sell. However, court records indicate most of these offenses happened years before they resided in the trailer park.

Tenants

One of the trailer park’s oldest residents is Ernie Knight, whose hands shake as he walks with a cane, though he refuses a walker.

Originally from Lubbock, Texas, he’s lived in his blue-and-white mobile home for nearly 19 years. Previously occupied by a niece, his only local family member, he estimates the home has been on the property for nearly 40 years. He moved to Cloverdale in 1970.

“I been here for most of my life,” he said with a tinge of a Texas drawl.

Now 15 years retired from MGM Brakes, a brake manufacturer and distributor in Cloverdale, he wants to stay in the county.

“I’m trying to get into some low-income housing in Healdsburg and Windsor, but the problem is they’re not built yet,” he said. He pays about $400 for his space, plus a Pacific Gas & Electric bill of over $100 a month.

He has an application for a low-income complex in town, but he was told the wait list is about two to three years long.

“Everything is full,” he said.

He, like the rest of the residents, doesn’t have time for a yearslong wait list.

“Sixty days isn’t enough for anybody to get out of here,” he said.

Residents heard rumors of an impending sale years ago, but they weren’t sure when it would happen.

“Almost until the day these people took over, we really didn't know it had been sold,” said Peterson, who found out about the sale on July 27 via text from someone close to Gerdes.

After Peterson’s husband died two years ago, living without his income made life harder and complicated the search for a new spot.

“It’s not just the spot you’re looking at. I mean, there’s other factors with the trailer … you have PG&E. You also have propane, because they're not natural gas. And then you have water, sewer, garbage, all that stuff. Prices change, everything is going up,” she said.

They live on a fixed disability income, and their primary medical providers are all in Sonoma County, with some “right here in town,” Peterson said.

She has lived on the property for nearly 12 years with her adult daughter, Kimberly, who suffered from a traumatic brain injury at age 9.

Since Peterson receives ongoing testing and she and her daughter see specialists who’ve spent years with them, they’d rather not change their medical providers.

Raised in the city of Sonoma, she’d like to stay in the county but finding a place to accommodate her 40-foot trailer also seems unlikely.

“It’s going to be a toss up whether feasibility or affordability wins out,” she said. She’s considering moving to Mendocino County with her son, but that’s a last resort decision.

“Me, I'm in a fifth-wheel, so yeah, I can pick it up and move it, but there are other people here who live here who can't do that. They can't even take their homes with them,” she said, referring to the long-occupied mobile homes that are simply too old to move and have seemingly fused into the ground.

Peterson, like many others, are saddened by the possibility of having to leave, considering the connections they’ve fortified over the years.

“If anybody here needs something, there’s always someone here who will help,” Peterson said.

Others in the community also want to stay in the county, but their downturned faces and hunched shoulders say everything before their words: They’ll likely move farther north to Lake or Mendocino counties. That is, if they can find an affordable apartment, a home to rent, or a space to park their trailer or mobile home.

You can reach Staff Writer Martin Espinoza at 707-521-5213 or martin.espinoza@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @pressreno.