RV residents evicted after annexation imposes stricter code

Howard Gladwill’s fifth-wheel trailer has no wheels. Black scorch marks, hidden behind a Brussels sprout plant, tell of multiple troubles with his water heater.

He’s lived in the trailer for a decade. Earlier this week, he was told he had until Monday to find a new home.

“I thought it might make a difference that I have no wheels. I don’t have a pickup to pull this thing. I got no other place to live,” said Gladwill, 69, his breath rattling from pulmonary disease. “All of a sudden I’m down, and now they kick me.”

This week, Gladwill and 21 of his neighbors who live in similarly degraded recreational vehicles and trailers were told their homes violated city code and they had less than a week to move. For many, it was their first indication that they were Spokane residents and had been since Jan. 1, 2012, when the city annexed a large portion of the West Plains from the county. As such, they no longer fell under the lax supervision of the county, where the Hilltop Mobile Park had been since it was built in 1936.

“The county ignored it because the county’s always ignored it,” said Nick Cline, 49, who bought the mobile park in 2006 for $1.2 million, according to county records.

His tenants in the park’s 23 mobile homes and 12 apartments aren’t in violation of city law, so they can stay. But the RV tenants are a different story. “Code came out a couple of weeks ago. Said they’re not allowed here and never have been,” Cline said. “I never knew it was illegal. The guy I bought it from never knew it was illegal. But I don’t have any choice.”

Cline, who said he earned $67,000 a year from the RV tenants, said he first got notice that RVs weren’t allowed on his land on Aug. 25 but waited to tell his tenants for more than a week, while he consulted a lawyer.

“I didn’t want to kick folks out if my lawyer said don’t move,” he said. “These people don’t live here because they want to. They’re all SSI. All disabled.”

Brian Coddington, spokesman for Mayor David Condon, said the city is aware of tenants’ needs and is ready to help them.

“We know there are some challenges and hurdles to do this,” Coddington said. “We’ll work with impacted tenants … to connect them with the most appropriate resource.”

Still, Coddington said, the safety concerns at the park were too large to ignore. He mentioned extension cords coming from one power source and strung between multiple vehicles as particularly egregious in terms of safety and fire rules.

City law says “a recreational vehicle is designed as a temporary living unit and is prohibited from being used as a permanent dwelling unit except in a manufactured or mobile home park unless the recreational vehicle fails to comply with fire and safety ordinances.”

“The expectation is the property owner will be in compliance by the 8th of September,” Coddington said. “This affects 22 RVs that are on site that need to be moved elsewhere.”

But Cline said he spoke with Dan Polson, the city’s code officer, and was told that the deadline wasn’t so rigid that he’d be penalized right away.

“He wants to see some movement. He wants to see a plan,” Cline said. “But I don’t want to be arrested because someone can’t move fast enough.”

Daniel Garry, 49, has lived in the park for three years. He said he didn’t believe most of his RV neighbors could move in just a few days.

“That’s not a lot of time to find a new place, especially for a lot of us,” Garry said. “This isn’t the Hilton. We didn’t win the lottery to get here.”