Unincorporated communities lack basic services INFRASTRUCTURE

JosŽ and Hortencia Franco have lived in Parklawn for decades. Hortencia Franco was one of a dozen residents who filed a lawsuit against Modesto and Stanislaus County claiming that racial discrimination is one reason Latino neighborhoods like Parklawn have not received timely infrastructure upgrades. less JosŽ and Hortencia Franco have lived in Parklawn for decades. Hortencia Franco was one of a dozen residents who filed a lawsuit against Modesto and Stanislaus County claiming that racial discrimination is one ... more Photo: Carlos A. Moreno, California Watch Photo: Carlos A. Moreno, California Watch Image 1 of / 5 Caption Close Unincorporated communities lack basic services 1 / 5 Back to Gallery

Nearly every day, Modesto Junior College student Arleen Hernandez battles an aging septic tank that backs up into her toilet and shower, bringing with it "bits of paper and chunks of mold."

When her parents moved to Parklawn in 1986, they didn't realize the extent to which their new neighborhood, an island of Stanislaus County land within the city of Modesto, lacks basic public services. Parklawn is not connected to nearby city sewer lines, which means Hernandez and her neighbors flush their sewage into overloaded septic tanks.

There is only one short strip of sidewalk along the southern edge of the community and not enough storm drains. During heavy rains, children dodge traffic in flooded streets on their way to school in the neighborhood that locals call "No Man's Land."

Years of government neglect

Not all of California's unincorporated communities are as bereft - some, such as Woodside in San Mateo County, are among the wealthiest. But across California, there are hundreds of neighborhoods like Parklawn - poor, dense communities that lack sewer systems, clean drinking water, sidewalks, streetlights or storm drains and have been the victim of years of government neglect.

In Eastern Coachella Valley, between Palm Springs and the Salton Sea, residents in mobile home parks pipe sewage into aging septic tanks and cesspools. In Lanare, a community near Fresno, arsenic taints the tap water.

"I've lived here my whole life, and when you're a child, you don't think it's something big," said Hernandez, a member of the South Modesto Municipal Advisory Council, which advises the Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors on issues related to unincorporated communities. "But as you grow older, you start realizing that it doesn't seem fair that people have basic needs met" right next to the underserved neighborhoods.

Islands of isolation

In Modesto alone, there are at least four disenfranchised islands on county land just a quick drive from the city's downtown, with its $55 million Gallo Center for the Arts.

Statewide, an estimated 1.8 million low-income and often Spanish-speaking Californians live in unincorporated communities, according to PolicyLink, an Oakland think tank. Many of them go without the water systems and roads that would curb health problems such as gastrointestinal illnesses and respiratory disease.

In Parklawn and similar unincorporated communities, language barriers, immigration status and a lack of political know-how have made it difficult for residents to navigate the governmental process.

"You're looking at very small communities that are impoverished ... and that puts them at a severe disadvantage," said Assemblyman Henry Perea, D-Fresno. "There are very few people who want to take on these communities as a priority, for a variety of reasons."

Money and jurisdiction often stand in the way of progress. Stanislaus County Supervisor Jim DeMartini, who represents Parklawn, said Modesto residents first must approve a ballot measure to provide sewer service to an unincorporated community. After that, the county would have to create a service agreement with the city.

Major costs of retrofitting

The biggest challenge is "the cost of doing it - having to go in and completely retrofit these 50-year-old subdivisions to modern standards," DeMartini said. Since 1996, the county has spent $23.7 million on improvements to six unincorporated areas in Modesto, including $296,830 for Parklawn, according to county records.

County officials say septic tanks are a homeowner's responsibility, and officials step in only after reports that residents could be exposed to sewage.

Last year, there were three such complaints in Parklawn and 33 in all unincorporated areas of Stanislaus County, said Sonya Harrigfeld, the county's director of environmental resources. In the past five years, there were 205 sewage complaints in unincorporated parts of the county.

Built on the cheap for migrant farmworkers from the Deep South, the Dust Bowl, Mexico and Central America, communities such as Parklawn proliferated in the 1940s and '50s and now dot much of California. Some are tracked by the U.S. Census Bureau, but others are so small or remote that data are scarce.

Until recently, there was little official recognition of the neighborhoods. Legislation signed last year by Gov. Jerry Brown requires government officials to consider neighboring low-income unincorporated areas in city general plans, annexation decisions and other urban planning, and it finally gives them a name: "disadvantaged unincorporated communities."

Another bill, introduced this year, would allow cities and service districts to extend services to distant unincorporated communities.

Despite the prevalence of such communities, they are out of sight - and, for most Californians, out of mind.

"There is a cycle of lack of investment, which leads to more lack of investment, which leads to lack of attention, which leads to more lack of attention," said Phoebe Seaton, program director for the Community Equity Initiative at California Rural Legal Assistance, which provides free legal services in poor communities.

Public health problems

Inadequate infrastructure exacerbates bad health, said Dr. Raul Ruiz, an emergency room physician and founder of the Coachella Valley Healthcare Initiative, which seeks to expand low-income residents' access to health care.

Cars and trucks on dusty, unpaved roads kick up sand and dirt, which can aggravate asthma or emphysema, he said. Improperly treated wastewater can cause gastrointestinal illnesses, and drinking water tainted with arsenic can lead to learning disabilities in children.

Assemblyman Manuel Pérez, D-Coachella (Riverside County), said he's aware of public health problems in his district, but he's hamstrung.

"We have Third World conditions, not only in this area, but in other areas of rural California," Pérez said. "Some of it has to do with political will - perhaps in the past they never had politicians willing to ensure that infrastructure goes to areas that really need it."