LIFE HARD AMID RAINS FLOODS HIT PARK AGAIN.

Byline: Eugene Tong Staff Writer

NEWHALL - Hadassah Foster watched this weekend's drenching in frustration as Newhall Creek swelled and once again submerged the only entrance at Polynesian Mobile Home Park, where she lives, under 10 inches of water.

The flooding has become routine over these wet months, with the worst damage sustained in January when loose debris from a brush fire last summer overwhelmed a culvert under the path between the residential park and San Fernando Road. Raging mudflows toppled a wall bordering the creek and damaged 29 homes.

Since then, Foster has been trying to unravel the web of agencies that govern California mobile-home parks and press the park's owners for repairs. Despite an ongoing cleanup, parts of the park remain under inches of mud.

``Nobody's taking leadership to deal with it,'' said Foster, a resident of the park since 1993. ``I kind of feel like I don't live in the city of Santa Clarita, county of Los Angeles, in the state of California. I live in the kingdom of ... the park owners, where the laws of physics are different.

``In the long run, there has to be legislative change. I don't think that's what the lawmakers had in mind when they took over jurisdiction.''

State rather than city and county agencies have governed California mobile-home parks since the late 1950s, when lawmakers attempted to impose uniform standards. Building code enforcement falls on the state Department of Housing and Community Development.

The HCD Department, whose nearest office is in Riverside, can cite negligent park owners, but it has no power to prosecute or take over troubled facilities. And there lies its weakness, said John G. Tennyson, a consultant for the state Senate Select Committee on Mobile and Manufactured Homes, which drafts mobile home park policy.

``The HCD is more of a ticket writer,'' he said. ``They don't have any real authority to prosecute you. ... They don't have as much authority as local government has over local buildings. There's more citing going on. But when it comes to actually getting the park owners to make repairs, they don't have any real teeth.''

L.D. Flickinger Co. of Acton, which manages the Polynesian Mobile Home Park, and company attorneys did not return calls for comment. But HCD Department officials said the park owner and management are facing the problems.

``The owner is doing everything possible,'' said Kim Strange, an acting deputy director of the department. ``We have an inspector going there almost daily to make sure the work is being done so (residents) are not kept out longer than they have to be.

``It's just a long process. It's just horrendous - the amount of damage that was done. It's a longer process than probably the residents think it should be.''

Senate consultant Tennyson said the state department is understaffed. State budget cuts have whittled the number of staff inspectors from about 50 to roughly 35 statewide.

``The main problem is money,'' he said. ``It's not funded by the general fund. It's fee for services.'' HCD funding comes from park owners, who pay about $6 per unit, an annual fee set in the late 1980s.

State Sen. Joseph Dunn, D-Garden Grove, who sits on the mobile-home committee, has proposed reform. His Senate Bill 40 would grant HCD receivership powers over mobile-home parks. There is also some discussion of raising the annual fee to about $18 per unit.

Tennyson said problems at mobile-home parks are often neglected in Sacramento while politicians deal with issues affecting more people.

``Quite frankly, people who live in mobile-home parks don't represent a large population,'' he said. About a million Californians reside in the state's 4,800 mobile-home parks - just more than 2 percent of the state population.

Some progress has been made at the Polynesian park in the month between the January storms and the latest deluge. Though the mobile-home park is outside city jurisdiction, Santa Clarita officials have secured about $540,000 to excavate Newhall Creek and have urged the HCD to step up enforcement.

The property owner, Polynesian Mobile Home Park LLC, contributed $30,600 to the effort. The owner also must present plans to rebuild the often-flooded entrance to the Housing and Community Development Department by Thursday.

Foster, one of a group of residents who have retained an attorney to protect their interests, will be watching.

``We already had the creek overrun that ... broke a wall,'' Foster said. ``I really wanted somebody to take action. ... I've been called a troublemaker, but it's about the health and safety of the community.''

Eugene Tong, [phone]

eugene.tong(at)dailynews.com

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2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- 2) Workers, at left, install new gas lines at the Polynesian Mobile Home Park, where many homes have been without gas or electricity for a month. Resident Hadassah Foster, above, wants more answers about park problems.

David Crane/Staff Photographer