City and state housing inspectors swarmed Velladao Mobile Home
Park one week after a major sewage outbreak.
Gilroy – City and state housing inspectors swarmed Velladao Mobile Home Park Thursday morning, one week after a major sewage outbreak exposed sub-standard living conditions at the site.
As a half dozen inspectors fanned out in the park, tucked out of view near the corner of Monterey Road and Luchessa Avenue, plumbers began work on sewer lines that spewed 700 square feet of wastewater.
“We walked every lot, all of the common areas and got all the information that we could get,” said Frank Gomez, senior inspector for the California Department of Housing and Community Development, based in Sacramento. The agency, which has sole jurisdiction over the park as a transportation facility, issued a clean-up order for the sewage last Friday. Gomez held off on a second citation this week since wastewater clean-up and sewer repairs had begun.
He did not expect additional citations related to other building, health and safety codes. The park has a low bar to meet in those areas – with few exceptions, it must only comply with regulations in force when it was opened in the 1950s.
“Obviously, if the park was being built today, we would never accept the electrical system or the (sewage) drain system,” Gomez said. “But so long as the system is being maintained, we wouldn’t require that they upgrade. In this case we do have some issues with the sewer system. Not so much with the electrical.”
In the next week, state officials will send a report on necessary repairs to park manager Robert Collins, of Gilroy, and owner Thomas Velladao, of Petaluma. Gomez said the agency would also send orders for repair to some of the people living in the 25 ramshackle trailers and mobile homes at Velladao. Residents will be responsible for removing illegal structures, repairing spliced electrical lines and other improvements.
The mobile home park has bustled with activity since last Friday, when a Dispatch story detailed the complaints of Livia Alvarado and Martha Ybarra. The women, whose trailers lie adjacent to the worst of two sewage spills at the park, say their children have suffered bouts of nausea and have had trouble eating during repeated outbreaks over the last four years.
“Even Gomez said it was good that we complained,” said Yesenia Banda, another neighbor. “It’s really bad here.”
Collins, who in the last week has been flooded with phone calls from city leaders and inspectors, has blamed the sewage outbreaks on residents. He claims they remove clean-out caps on the above-ground sewer lines when their toilets back up, though the women interviewed by the Dispatch deny tampering with the lines. The network of sewage pipes that snake between homes eventually flows into the city sewer system.
On Thursday afternoon, a lone worker sculpted fresh cement around a protective box intended to block access to the clean-out cap by Alvarado’s and Ybarra’s trailers. A plumber spent the earlier part of the day repairing a damaged sewage line at another mobile home.
“We’re doing everything we can to fix the problem,” Collins said.
While the city has no formal jurisdiction over the park, local health and safety inspectors compiled a laundry list of recommendations for state officials.
Deputy Fire Marshal Rodger Maggio said there “are some issues that they’re going to have to address,” including the width of access lanes for fire trucks.
“Our main interest,” Maggio said, “is to ensure that the people in this community enjoy the same fire and safety standards as the rest of the city.”
