White Swan trailer park tenants say conditions are unhealthy

WHITE SWAN, Wash. -- Perched on a dusty, weed-infested lot south of town, Edna Yoke's single-wide trailer isn't close to the kind of living standards most renters would expect.

An electrical outlet in the living room protrudes from the wall, wires exposed. Greenish-brown mold lines the ceilings and the bathtub has sunk about 3 inches into the floor, leaving a gap between the rim and walls.

The air smells damp and musty and damaged portions of the ceiling are nailed over with wood paneling.

Yoke has lived in the trailer with her five grandchildren for more than a year, paying $415 a month in rent. Unemployed and living on a fixed income, she can't afford to move.

"We're stuck between a rock and a hard place," said Yoke, a Yakama tribal member.

She's not alone in this rural park deep within the Yakama reservation. Here, there are more than two dozen tattered trailers dating back to the 1970s. Yoke said several tenants live in rundown conditions.

Yoke and other residents, who are mostly Yakama tribal members, said they've had trouble getting anyone with authority to investigate their complaints. The park on Signal Peak Road is in a regulatory no-man's land without any apparent oversight or enforcement of basic sanitation to protect public health.

Owner Tim Jewett, who lives at the park, blames tenants for the problems, saying they damage the trailers, requiring constant cleaning and repair work. He pointed to holes he said were punched into the walls of one recently vacated trailer.

"You can work on them and work on them," Jewett said. "They live like pigs and they don't pay rent."

He has a list of tenants who collectively owe more than $6,100.

"Eighty percent of what I hear in here is a lie," he said as he walked through the trailer park. "They're going to pay this, they're going to pay that."

Yoke said she is behind on her rent, but has been trying to catch up. "He does work with me," she said, referring to Jewett.

But that doesn't justify the problems with the trailers, she said.

On a recent afternoon, Yoke pointed to a large vent beneath a nearby trailer. "See, you can smell it," Yoke said, explaining that sewer problems are not new to the park.

Leonard Speedis and his wife, Tina, were forced to leave their trailer with their two small grandchildren after sewage kept backing up in their sink and bathtub.

"It's in total disrepair," Leonard Speedis said. "It's a wonder that anybody could live in these homes."

Former resident Israel Maldonado, whose trailer was destroyed by fire July 16, said he struggled with an overwhelming amount of mold and sewage problems.

"I think if the health inspectors went in there, they'd shut (the park) down," he said.

In a June 14 letter to the Tribal Council, an Indian Health Service official described the Speedis trailer as unlivable and asked the couple to leave until the sewer problem is fixed.

Shawn Blackshear, an Indian Health environmental health officer who wrote the letter, said the trailer had an unhealthy amount of mold throughout, even between the walls. Ventilation was inadequate, he also found.

"I think that particular trailer was beyond repair," he said in an interview. "The ceiling was falling in. The kitchen sink -- there were efforts to repair it -- but it wasn't up to code. Basically, that trailer needs to be replaced."

Although Indian Health can ask tribal officials to intervene on behalf of tribal members, he said he has no enforcement authority over the property or its owner.

"It would be up to the tribe or the county about what action to take," he said.

The trailer park is on the reservation but on nontribal land and owned by a non-Indian, creating confusion over who has authority to take any action.

Tina Speedis said the tribe told her it had no authority over nontribal lands owned by non-Indians. She said she complained to Yakima County officials only to be told that they had no authority because the park is on the reservation even though the land is taxed by the county.

Yoke said it's a typical attitude often displayed when jurisdictional issues arise between tribal and nontribal governments.

"We're out here, we're Native American, and a lot of times people feel 'Well, you got your government, go to them,'" she said.

Gordon Kelly, director of environmental health for the Yakima Health District, said the county had not received a complaint from anyone in the trailer park.

But on Wednesday, he said a staff member of the Yakama Tribal Council called seeking contacts for county building and health inspectors.

Yoke said she informed Yakama Tribal Council Chairman Harry Smiskin of the problems, and that he promised to contact the county. Smiskin didn't return telephone calls seeking comment for this story.

When first questioned about the park on Aug. 9, Kelly said his office had no authority, deferring to the federal Environmental Protection Agency. However, he subsequently said the Health District would inspect sewer problems at the park if the trailers used septic tanks, which they do.

He said he provided the tribe with contact information for county building and health inspectors. "If we get a call from a (renter) and we were asked to look at it, we would," Kelly said.

According to Yoke, Jewett isn't willing to make adequate repairs. When her bathtub sank, she said he propped it up on blocks and caulked around it. But it sank again and has yet to be fixed.

Jewett said it's not the only thing he's had to fix more than once.

"I'm working all the time on them -- all the time," he said. "I'm getting sick and tired of getting screwed by people." Yoke said she has cleaned vacant trailers for him in preparation for new renters to move in, and was told to paint over mold.

Tina Speedis said all the owner did about her sewer problem was run a snake through the pipes, and twice drain the septic tank. "But two days later, it would be the same," she said.

She said the raw sewage smell was making her sick.

"I was staggering down the hallway like I was drunk," she said.

The letter to Tribal Council warned of the dangers of exposure to hydrogen sulfide. "Sewer gas exposure can be potentially fatal at high levels," the letter said.

Out of money and work, the couple had no where to go. The tribe paid for a month's stay at a motel. After that, they stayed in a teepee with their grandchildren, ages 2 and 7 months, at the tribe's RV park west of Toppenish. Now they are staying with family.

Their personal belongings, including family photos and living supplies, are still in the trailer. They're not sure what their next move will be.

"It ain't been very easy at all," Leonard Speedis said. "We've been displaced now for about three months."

Meanwhile, Yoke and her grandchildren, ages 5 to 17, live with the smell, mold and poor insulation.

"It's depressing," she said. "When I'm away from here, it's easy to forget. But when I come back, it doesn't take long to become depressed again.

"The kids, they're faring well -- They're not really aware of what's going on."

* Phil Ferolito can be reached at 509-577-7749, or pferolito@yakimaherald.com.