Squalid Conditions Cited at Trailer Park : Pacoima: State inspector finds 90 infractions of health and safety codes. Earlier, 140 violations were found.

A state housing inspector found 90 violations of health, building and safety codes Friday during a tour of crowded trailers at a Pacoima park where he found an elderly man dependent on an oxygen tank for survival living in a tent-like shelter, officials said.

The violations, ranging from exposed electrical wires to leaking sewage, were found during an inspection by the state Department of Housing and Community Development of the Pacoima Trailer Park, which has a long history of squalid conditions, officials said.

Officials said the violations were found four months after a similar state inspection found 100 violations at the park at Pierce Street and San Fernando Road. Last month, city and county inspectors found 40 health- and building-code violations at the park, said Chris Holifield, an aide to City Councilman Ernani Bernardi. Bernardi’s office requested the inspections.

Most of the residents of the trailer park, which contains 26 trailers and 11 small cabins, are poor Latino women and children.

A spokesman for the state housing agency said inspector Charles Martin found 90 violations. Holifield--who accompanied Martin--said one-third of the violations were classified as major health hazards.

Holifield said Bernardi’s office was attempting Friday afternoon to find other housing for two tenants found living in dangerous situations at the trailer park--a woman who had a short in a wet electrical wire in her trailer’s bathroom, and an elderly man whose breathing is aided by oxygen pumped through a tube running from a pressure tank to his nose.

Holifield said the man, who has a heart condition, was living in a tent-like shelter next to a trailer, a fenced-off area covered by a tarp. The man unlocked a padlock and opened a gate to allow the inspector into the area that had a couch, table, refrigerator and the oxygen tank hissing in the corner.

“These people are in danger,” Holifield said. “We are looking into finding suitable housing for these people. We don’t want to displace anyone.”

Bernardi’s office asked for the inspection by the state, which regulates trailer parks, after fielding complaints from nearby residents about the park, Holifield said. The neighbors complained that the park was an eyesore with leaking sewage and mounds of trash around several trailers.

Officials said tenants rarely make complaints about conditions because they fear repercussions from the park management. Most of the trailers are owned by the park and are rented for $385 to $540 a month, Holifield said.

“It’s dirty and it stinks,” said one middle-aged woman who lives in the trailer park. “They never fix anything. It only gets worse.”

The woman then moved away so the park manager would not see her talking to a reporter. A teen-age boy who lives in the park also spoke to a reporter while warily watching for the manager.

“I live here and am embarrassed to say I live here,” the boy said. “But I don’t want to say any more. I could get in trouble.”

A woman who said she was the manager declined to comment. The park’s owner, Stuart Glazer of Westlake Village, telephoned her office while the inspection was in progress, declined comment and ordered a Times reporter off the property.

A group of men who appeared to live in the park joined the manager as she followed the inspector’s route and one of the men angrily ordered a Times photographer standing outside the property to stop taking pictures.

Holifield said the men became indignant about the inspection and she called a Los Angeles police officer to stand by at the park. There was no disturbance.

Holifield said Glazer has already been ordered to correct violations found by city and county inspectors. She said Martin will also prepare a notice requiring Glazer to correct the state violations he found.

Holifield declined to comment on whether problems with the often-cited park will be referred to the city attorney’s office for possible legal action.

In the past, officials have said the park was among the most frequently cited properties in the county. In 1989, Glazer told The Times that it is a struggle to keep the old trailers up to code requirements. He said that if he invested the money necessary to significantly improve the property, he would be forced to raise rents above what the tenants can pay. Glazer bought the property in 1985, state records show.

Pressure on Glazer to improve conditions is not likely to lessen, Holifield said.

“The situation warrants it,” she said. “We are interested in the owner of this place understanding that he must provide safe housing for his tenants.”