Families evicted from Circle 5

Four families, all with children, are being evicted from the Circle 5 trailer park on the east edge of Sisters. All have to be out no later than June 15.

Circle 5 manager Frank Goodenough said each occupant being evicted failed to obey park rules by erecting illegal buildings or failing to keep their site clean or by leaving children unattended to cause problems for other occupants.

The families include:

* Robert and Janice Morse and their five sons, ages 10 through 26, living in a 31-foot travel trailer (not a mobile home) with an attached shed;

* Don Huff and his three sons (Huff communicated through another party that he did not wish to speak to The Nugget) from a mobile owned by the Circle 5;

* Sandy Youngblood and John Racicot (pronounced Rosco), along with Youngblood's son, 11, and daughter, 12, from a two-bedroom mobile owned by the Circle 5;

* Judy Godell and her eight-year-old son, living in a small travel trailer.

Another couple may also be asked to leave, according to Goodenough, for erecting and failing to remove an illegal workshop behind their rented mobile home. The Nugget did not contact that couple.

Each of the families had been warned before the eviction notices went out, said Goodenough, who took over management of the park from his daughter Sandra McNerney, on May 15.

"We asked them to clean up their sites and they did not clean the sites," Goodenough said.

Each of the evictees contacted thought they had cleaned up their space after being asked to do so, and were surprised by the eviction notices.

Goodenough said the evictions are being required by Circle 5 owner Don Moilanen. Goodenough declined a request to provide Moilenan's phone number.

"I try to be fair with people, but I have to look at the owner's aspect. He needs overnighters (overnight occupants). People won't pull in for the night (when they see the condition of the park)," Goodenough said.

Rates posted in the manager's office for spaces are $275 per month (plus electricity), $114 per week and $19 per night. The park also charged $150 per month and $25 per additional person for the three teepees, two of which were removed from the park last week, according to former manager McNerney.

She said the park has 42 sites, not including the teepees.

No one has been living in the teepees for several months, according to Goodenough.

Robert and Janice Morse have lived in the Sisters area for two years. They have five boys living with them in a 31 foot travel trailer (not a mobile home).

The boys sleep in an insulated shed built adjacent to the trailer in Space 2A with the help of the shop teacher from Sisters high School. That shed, along with a camper shell donated by McNerney when she managed the Circle 5, and the tarp they used to cover the end of their travel trailer, caused their eviction.

"I feel bad for those two, but it (the eviction) has to be done. The shed has to go. They said they need the shed or they don't have enough room. So they have to go," manager Goodenough said.

"I like them. They are good people. But there are too many kids living there. If they find a better place, maybe I done them a favor."

Robert and Janice didn't see the eviction coming.

"First they told us to side the shed. We asked what kind of siding, and got no response," said Robert.

"We had the tarp over the top of the trailer in winter. I didn't think it looked that bad," said Janice.

When asked, they took the tarp down, but not soon enough and not before the owner of the Circle 5 had seen it a second or a third time after telling the manager to have it removed, according to Goodenough.

Now the Morses have to go, even if they clean up their site, said Goodenough. "They've had a couple of warnings, then we gave them a 30-day notice. They live in their RV anyway, so it is not like we are kicking them out of their home."

Robert has a 30% disability as an American Veteran. He was at Ft. Lewis where he broke his foot around 1980, he doesn't remember when exactly. It took army doctors two years to determine that the foot was broken and not simply bruised, according to Robert. Then doctors botched the repair surgery.

Robert gets about $1,000 a month combined in Social Security and Veterans' benefits.

Robert said the VA doctors won't give him a clearance to return to work, and when he goes in to apply for a job, potential employers are scared off by the fact that he must put down on the form that he is partially disabled.

He has had training in drafting, both on the "board" and on computer, but how much training isn't exactly clear.

At some point he became a certified welder. But he said his foot injury prevents him from standing for long.

Robert took a correspondence course to be a truck driver, even went down to Arizona to take the test, "but that is no job for a family man," said Janice, who took some courses in computer data entry and medical records, but has no job experience.

These courses were funded by what Janice called "student loans." These loans, and others, are part of an accumulation of debt that has prevented the Morses from being eligible for a home from Habitat for Humanity, according to Janice.

The family qualifies in every other way, according to Habitat for Humanity Director Sharlene Weed.

Janice works part time as a house keeper and she cleans the Habitat for Humanity offices.

No one in this Mormon family smokes or drinks or does drugs: "They better not," says Janice.

Their son Steve works at Black Butte Ranch a couple of days per week as a prep cook. He may get more hours this summer. He is able to kick in $100 a month to the family for food and necessities. The oldest son, Fred, 26, works part time at Rays Food Place and contributes about the same.

Robert tried to get a job at Northwest Telemarketing in Sisters, which has been consistently looking for enough employees.

"They told me I wasn't forceful enough and didn't read the (copy) fast enough," Robert said.

Reading is a problem for Robert. Janice said that Robert and all five of her boys have a reading disability, a problem getting the words from the eyes to the brain.

A doctor who had been consulted acknowledged the problem but wouldn't give it a formal diagnosis, she said, because he was not a specialist in learning disabilities.

This has made school a struggle for her children. The Sisters School district has been good for her boys, which is a reason she wants to find a place in the Sisters area.

Robert and Janice would like to get out of the travel trailer and into a house. Son Steve would just as soon the family could find a small piece of land to move onto with the trailer. Janice agreed it would be nice to have a place where they could have a garden and raise some chickens.

They currently pay about $600 a month in space rental, utilities, storage facilities in both Sisters and in Portland, and laundry. They can afford to pay that much, maybe a little more, for a spot of land or for a rental home.

They don't need much. But they need it in kind of a hurry.

Sandy Youngblood and John Racicot (pronounced "rosco") rent a two-bedroom mobile home in Circle 5 Space 18, facing the highway.

Sandy said, "We got the notice about two weeks ago. We have to be out by June 15. We got the notice and I started crying, and went up there and asked 'Why?' "

"Frank (Goodenough) told me 'You did not comply with park rules.' Sandra (the former manager) had given us a verbal warning to clean up our space. We cleaned it up. Frank then told us we had too many cars. We've given one to Judy (a neighbor) and sold the Bronco, even though we didn't get what we wanted for it."

Frank Goodenough said the couple had at one time "six cars and a motor home" at the space, and the site was not adequately cleaned up.

Space 18 does look a little crowded. Youngblood said they are trying to sell another car or two.

Sandy is not working John works as a carpenter. Although they are not married, they have been a couple for 11 years. Sandy says she suffers from depression and stress.

Racicot and Youngblood currently pay $440 per month for their mobile home facing the highway, and could afford up to $600 per month.

They had actually been looking for another place before all this started, but Sandy wanted one with three bedrooms, one for each of the kids.

Sandy has two children, a boy age 11, and a girl, age 12.

"I don't know what we are going to do. We have looked for another place," said Sandy. "I guess we'll put our stuff in storage and camp for the summer, until school starts."

"You need a house for kids," she said.

John and Sandy would be willing to share a house with their neighbor, Judy Godell in Space 19, who is also being evicted.

Judy works as a maid at the Ponderosa Lodge. She and her eight-year-old son share a small travel trailer.

Although she was paying monthly rent, Sandy says her neighbor and friend Godell was given notice on May 15 to pull her trailer out by June 8.

Sandy says that she and Judy contacted Legal Aid, and were told by legal aid that since Judy is also paying monthly, she also has to be given 30 days notice.

That still isn't much time, as Sisters rentals get absorbed by resort workers and vacationing families able to pay more in a week than they can pay for a month.

If they can find a house big enough, the Godell and Youngblood families can probably pay as much as $800 in rent.

Judy was at work and couldn't be reached.

Sandy said, "I don't understand what is going on here, why he is doing this. It isn't fair, there are too many kids (involved)."

Frank Goodenough says it is not hard to understand. His wife Betty runs the front desk during days when he works as a carpenter for a local construction company.

Frank mows and cleans up and maintains the trailer park in the evenings, and on weekends.

"I don't have anything against poor people. We don't have a lot of money ourselves. But you can be poor and still keep a neat place.

"All we ask is they pay their rent on time and keep the place clean."

Frank has some issues with some of the kids of the evicted families as well.

He called it hearsay and wouldn't identify which kids he was talking about, but he said some had lit fires, some were speeding, some were skateboarding loudly after 10 p.m., others may have killed a bird with a homemade bomb.

"I just can't have that," he said. "Somebody is going to get hurt."

He feels bad for the families that have to move.

Anyone who may have a housing option for one of thefamilies mentioned in this story may contact Eric Dolson at 549-9941.