STOCKTON, Calif. — Some families in Stockton are scrambling to find shelter after being forced out of their mobile home park Thursday morning.
Officials with the San Joaquin County Sheriff's Office say their deputies enforced a clean-up court order Thursday at a mobile home park on Auto Avenue near Waterloo Road. The order deemed the location uninhabitable.
"The process was started back in June and directed all unlawful tenants to vacate the premises," San Joaquin County Sheriff Public Information Officer Sandra Mendez said in a statement. "All residents were given plenty of notice to move out, but refused to do so."
The forced morning move-out came as a disappointment to mobile home park resident Wilma Guenthur who said she's lived at the location for 36 years.
Guenthur says she was driving back from her dentist's office Thursday morning when she noticed the police lights. Moments later, she was forced out of her mobile home with only enough time to grab her dogs and teenage daughter.
"I'm on all kinds of medication and I'm on my oxygen machine. Now I got nowhere to go and nowhere to put it," Guenthur said. "I got to stay in my truck with my daughter, and my tags are up."
According to Guenthur, fire trucks and police activity have become a common sight in the neighborhood over the years.
"The fire department had to come put out another fire last night," Guenthur said, adding that her truck was damaged by firefighters' efforts to put out the blaze. "This trailer park used to be nice until she passed away and all these people started moving in on their own and telling other people, 'we got a place for you to stay.'"
She says the park fell into disarray following the death of a former owner, but that long-time residents weren't part of the problem.
"It looks so junky and instead of putting the garbage in the dumpster they just throw it all over the ground," Guenthur said. "I'm a senior so why are they doing that to me? And I've been in and out of here for 36 years."
Deputies described the mobile home park Thursday as "packed full" of garbage, trailers and cars.
Regardless of who is to blame for the mess, deputies said all residents had to leave. Some families like Guenthur's are now left trying to find shelter and questioning the timing, just days before Christmas and amid cold temperatures.
"I don't understand... it's not right," Guenthur said. "They don't care, they don't. They got a nice, warm place to go to every night. They got the money to do what they want to do. We don't."
San Joaquin County, which oversaw the court order, has not yet responded to a request for comment or an interview.
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