Piru Woman Ordered to Raze Labor Encampment

Ventura County building and safety officials have ordered a Piru woman to demolish a migrant worker camp in her back yard after learning that children living there were not bathing for fear of getting shocked by electricity in a communal shower.

More than 20 residents have been living without electricity in campers, trailers and wooden sheds since Tuesday, when county officials cut the power because property owner Maria Lopez refused to allow county inspectors to see the shower.

The property, at 823 N. Main St., has been the subject of complaints from neighbors since the mid-1980s. But authorities said they now have the upper hand in halting Lopez from using her 9,500-square-foot lot as a camp for farm workers.

Lopez is scheduled to appear in Ventura County Muncipal Court next month to face misdemeanor charges on more than 20 building and safety code violations she was cited for during an inspection last month, said Robert Orellana, assistant county counsel.

County officials said the only way Lopez will come into full compliance is if she tears down all but one of the five sheds behind her house and removes at least two of the three trailers on the property.

“It is a sad statement on the situation, but we have to ask ourselves if it is better for them to be evicted and find someplace to live or let them stay there,” said William Windroth, director of the county’s Building and Safety Department.

“Even living in a car would be safer than living in those hovels the way they are right now,” he said.

Windroth classified the whole camp as a major fire hazard, adding that the loss of power greatly increases the possibility of a catastrophe.

“Somebody using a candle could knock it over and start a fire, and if a fire breaks out in one place, it will spread like a prairie fire.”

County officials did not disconnect the power because of the building and safety charges pending against Lopez.

Instead, the county turned off the electricity after Piru School Principal Jane Campbell became concerned about several students who came to the elementary school dirty and with strong body odor.

When Campbell learned the children were afraid to go in the shower because they had received electrical shocks from the metal fixtures, she approached a county supervisor about finding alternative housing, said Lee Pliscou, an attorney with California Rural Legal Assistance.

Lopez said she offers the only alternative for her poor tenants, most of whom work in citrus groves that surround Piru. She said many are members of her extended family.

“These people are telling me this is the most they can afford to pay for a place to live,” said Lopez, a native of Michoacan, Mexico, and a longtime resident of Piru. “Where else are they going to go if I have to throw them out?” she asked, wiping tears from her eyes.

Lopez said that she has the proper permits for the home, which she purchased in 1966 for $13,439, and insisted that a judge in 1985 told her the property was in legal condition.

While acknowledging that it is illegal for tenants to live in sheds without electricity, Lopez angrily accused the county officials of singling her out.

“All of Piru is doing this, having people live in their back yards. Why am I the only one cited, and why am I the only one whose power they turned off?”

County officials said that although Lopez expresses concern for her tenants, she has a long history of being ordered to bring the property into compliance with county building and safety regulations.

Nicole Doner, a county zoning enforcement officer, said the violations include converting campers and trailers into illegal residences, building illegal wooden sheds too close together and too close to the property line, and constructing an illegal addition to the main house.

“We’re really lucky someone did not die out there as a result of all these violations,” said Orellana, who has been sworn in as a special deputy district attorney to prosecute the case.

At least 20 people reside in the main house and various other structures, cooking with gas stoves and using candles and lanterns for light. Lopez said she charges anywhere from $80 a month for a single resident to $300 a month for a family of seven to live in a wooden shed.

Most tenants share a bathroom, a shower and cooking facilities behind the main house and wash dishes with water from an open faucet. Although the tenants are angry the electricity had been cut, none said they wanted to move.

“Where are we going to go?” asked a woman who was preparing salsa in one of the wooden sheds. “We have to use candles and lanterns now to keep things light at night, but it is better than paying the rent we would have to pay somewhere else.”

Lopez’ daughter, Viola, said she and her mother suffer the effects of the power outage in the same way the tenants do.

Lopez paid about $500 to bring her electrical system into compliance the day after the power was turned off. But Windroth says the power will not be restored until all the other violations are resolved.

“We have done our best to get voluntary compliance from her, as we have done in other cases,” Windroth said. “But it has been four or five years since we started trying to get Mrs. Lopez to either fix it properly or demolish it.”

Orellana said Lopez will face 20 to 30 misdemeanor charges unless all the violations are rectified by Friday, which would require her to evict many of her tenants.

But Lopez said she had no plans to evict anyone.

Meanwhile, Supervisor Maggie Erickson-Kildee said on Friday that her staff was trying to come up with alternative housing for the tenants.

“It is always difficult when there are families living in situations that are both illegal and unsafe,” she said.

Times photographer Carlos Chavez contributed to this article.