Max Whittaker

Death of a Trailer Park

As the gap between the rich and poor in the United States grows, so does the disparity in housing. Nowhere is this more evident than in California. Housing is not keeping up with population growth ­ 250,000 families move to the state every year, but only 190,000 new homes are built this demand has sent housing costs skyrocketing.

No one feels these rising rents more than those who can least afford it: the poor. One traditional haven for the poor has been the trailer park. Median rent in the western US is over $850, but a family could rent space in a trailer park for as little as $250 a month, including all utilities. This allows those with minimum wage jobs and on federal assistance to afford shelter.

As property values increase, these trailer parks are being developed into more expensive tract homes and retail centers. In the low-income community of Olivehurst, less than an hour's drive from the State Capitol in Sacramento, the Andina Village trailer park is abandoned by its owner and purchased by a local developer. The residents are evicted, forcing them to vainly search for inexpensive housing. Some move out of the state or into the homes of relatives.

   
Qeuntin Lay and David Wilson play in an abandoned trailer stripped by looters.
   
Amanda Barnes and her son Brandon relax in their broken-down truck.
     
  
Quentin Lay plays with friends.
   
Sandra Leckie and her husband Jimmy have lived in the park for 10 years.
   
David Wilson and friends play cards on abandoned furniture.
     
  
Nicole Barnes walks through sewage that has seeped up from broken pipes ­ contaminating the park and its water supply.
   
Park resident John Wood sleeps with a gun next to his bed.
   
Katie Megazi carries water into her family's trailer after the water was cut off at the trailer park.
     
  
Kathleen Church, left, worries about a squatter moving into the park who was convicted of kidnapping and raping Church years ago.
   
Renee, who began squatting in the park after management abandoned it, washes her hair.
   
A developer buys the park and begins to bulldoze it while people are still living there.
     
  
Resident Linda Zachary strips metal off an abandoned trailer to sell for scrap.