WEST SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The people who make Northern California Strong are those who inspire us and make our communities a great place to live. ABC10 wants to highlight their strength by recognizing what they do. This week we want to introduce you to Forrest Gardens, founder of the West Sacramento Community Discussion Board on Facebook.
Last fall, more than 50 residents at Forrest Gardens' mobile home park in West Sacramento received tenant evictions notices. The letters confused many because the notices came without warning. At the time, residents also had a hard time getting answers because the mobile home park changed of management.
“It was pure pandemonium here,” Gardens said.
Problems like this aren’t unfamiliar to Gardens. He’s the founder of the West Sacramento Community Discussion Board, a Facebook advocacy group that helps people in the West Sacramento community.
“We use our own experiences and education and strengths to help out one another,” Gardens said.
After asking around, Gardens discovered the eviction notices were a result of health and safety code violations from the state inspectors. And the pandemic caused a lack of communication between the mobile park’s new owners, the state and tenants.
“It was a mess because nobody knew what was going on,” Gardens said.
A mess that Gardens managed to help clean up. He contacted lawyers and city officials who helped worked through bureaucratic tape and bridge communication gaps. The mobile home park manager changed evictions to code violations notices. Gardens then used his Facebook group to get volunteers to fix up his neighbors’ homes.
“It was amazing, everybody had a hammer or a saw,” Gardens said.
After a few days of hard work, volunteers brought nearly all the homes up to code.
Forrest Gardens is NorCal Strong. If you want to nominate a strong Northern Californian send a text (916) 321-3310 and put NorCal Strong in the text. Feel free to send pictures and or web links in the submission.
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