Residents at Treasure Valley Mobile Home Park in Vale say conditions have deteriorated since new owners took over in 2021.
“I feel like I live in a slum,” said Jessica Rios, who has lived in the park with her mother for five years.
The park was “a family community” under the ownership of Kevin Berg, said Tammy Nelson, who lives with her husband and two children. Now, she said, “it’s been an absolute nightmare.”
The residents in the park, with 67 home sites, describe uncertainty as they await the outcome of foreclosure proceedings.
Berg has issue public notice he intends to auction off the property on March 21 to recoup more than $2 million he said is owed by the buyer. He has declined to comment.
The businesswoman behind the company that bought the park is Brooke L. Torres, who operates Torres Properties and now lives in Miami, Florida. She is a partner in Florida company called Cash Cow Capital LLC.
Torres said by email recently that she expected to clear up the foreclosure soon while listing the park for sale. The park is at 1000 Hope St.
The property management company she retained last September expected that to happen as well.
“It is our understanding the foreclosure will be cured expeditiously by the current owner in order to stop the foreclosure process this week,” according to an email on Thursday, Feb. 27, from Erik Hess of Sterling Properties.
Dustin Martinsen, the Vale attorney handling the foreclosure, said by email that same day, “As to whether or not the borrower will cure the default, I cannot speak to that because I don’t know if they will.”
Torres didn’t respond to an email on Friday, Feb. 28, seeking comment.
But tenants had plenty to say in recent interviews.
Heather Page, who moved into Treasure Valley three years ago, took to Facebook with her complaints.
“People started moving in the park and not getting a background check,” she wrote. “The drugs started streaming through here like wildfire.”
In his foreclosure notice, Berg reported that some of the property “may have been used in manufacturing methamphetamines, the chemical components of which are known to be toxic.”
Page said the park hasn’t had a manager on site for about a year. She said she was mistakenly sent eviction notices for not paying rent, but she said she provided receipts showing otherwise.
She said she had to pay additional sums to settle the matter because “I couldn’t afford to take them to court.”
She said apparent drug trafficking has degraded the park.
“When I walked out to go get the mail, I found drug needles and crack pipes,” she said. “I’m a little leery to go out after dark.”
Darlene Lee has lived in the park for eight years and said it was well cared for under Berg.
“When he sold it, it went to hell,” she said.
She said a storm in September 2023 damaged trees in the park, including a chunk that fell on her mobile home, damaging a bedroom ceiling. She was left to repair the damage.
Lee said the lowest estimate she got for repairs was $10,500.
“I stopped paying rent because that’s the only way I can fix it,” she said. Otherwise, “Nobody’s going to want this place.”
As the park foreclosure plays out, Lee intends to “wait and see what happens. I don’t have the money to move anywhere.”
Rios said park rules required tenants to keep their properties in good order. That meant no trash, no disabled vehicles.
Under the new owners, the park became “junked up,” Rios said.
“We have complained about it,” she said. “It falls on deaf ears.”
Tenants aren’t sure who’s in charge.
They said they pay their rent to a La Grande company, Eastern Oregon Trail Property Management.
A person answering the phone there said the company doesn’t manage the Vale property but wouldn’t disclose circumstances around rent payments.
Some tenants said they pay as part of their rent an additional assessment for water and sewer service provided by the city.
Todd Fuller, Vale city manager, said the city hasn’t received a payment from the park owners in four months. He said the city is owed $58,420.
Hess, the Sterling Properties representative, said Martinsen has instructed clients not to pay rent to Sterling on behalf of Torres but to the La Grande company.
“Minimal cash flow impacts the park’s ability to timely pay invoices,” he wrote. “The owners are having to pay for expenses with owner contributions to keep the park functioning.”
Martinsen confirmed only that a sale document allows Berg “to collect the rents” but otherwise declined to comment on the disposition of those payments.
Hess said his company has “no way” of knowing which tenants have paid rent.
“We know what the tenants should be paying monthly and their tenant ledgers with our company reflect their known balances to the park’s owner,” Hess wrote.
He said the owners decided not to have an on-site manager, but that Sterling dispatches someone to visit the park about every three months. Meantime, he said, Sterling is otherwise tending to the park.
“We talk to numerous of the tenants in the community and are always available by phone, email, text, emergency calls when our office is closed,” he wrote. “We are very responsive to the tenants and if any issues are reported to us, we address them expeditiously.”
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