Letter of the Week: Blue Lake's Garth house – Jan. 9, 2007

The Arcata Eye

This is some information and clarification about the critical situation regarding the possible demolition of Mary Garth of Blue Lake family’s home due to excess stuff inside of it. I am her brother and have been able to make several trips up there to work on the project. 

She has lived in the house around 20 years as a single mother with her kids, making a below-poverty line income without child support or welfare, on selling eggs, chickens, ducks, plants etc.

Some of the last few years her family has suffered from depression, physical and family troubles. And the accumulation of charity clothes in the house got out of control. (Of the “solid waste “mentioned in the Nov. 21, 2006 article, 90 percent were clothes.)

Her small farm business was shut down after the first code enforcement inspection, and her chickens, ducks and rabbits were taken away because she was temporarily evicted from the house  and they could not take care of the animals.

So the county stored, inspected $300 of animals and in some type of hearing without legal counsel they fined her $30,000!, which would impoverish her family. And her minor child was taken away by Child Protective Services which has increased her depression and the hassle of dealing with that has delayed getting the place cleaned up.

I was up there in December helping out and I saw some of the Arcata Eye news articles (Nov. 21, Dec. 19) on the board meetings and I would like to clarify a few points because it figures big in the possible decision to destroy her home

I know it takes several hours being there to figure out what’s going on. We have been up there several times as seen by the receipts we sent to the county for the McKinleyville dump, recycling and the computer e-waste we have recycled free down here in Silicon Valley and we have removed pickup loads of stuff from the property, not including bags of  clothes we sent to charities.

1. Excess stuff in house (90 percent clothes) “seemed to have increased.”

It may have appeared to be that way looking from the front porch doorway into the dark living room, but the living room is the easy way to take stuff from inside the house to the driveway where it is taken off the property, so the living room is the staging area for the bags of garbage, clothes to charities, recyclables). So, depending on the weather or the timing of the pickup, the volume in the living room would fluctuate up and down.

2. “Trash... dumped into chicken coop.”

I was there in late September when she and her son were securing the coop and adding a better door. In December the volume of stuff did not seem to have changed.

3. ”Two junk cars.”

Two cars were removed since spring but as for the white Chrysler  she had a mechanic over there who got the car running (the engine runs strong) this fall and it may be noticed in photos that she moved it foward up the slope of the driveway. Unfortunately, it was decided to top off the radiator with a coolant bottle, but unfortunately the bottle was filled with used tranny oil so she would have to tow it to a mechanic so the bad stuff won’t get into the engine.
Progress had been made on the offers of goverment assistance. Previously she believed the county only could offer welfare which she was not eligible for as a homeowner.

She has been in contact with the Redwood Community Action Agency with Kermit Thobadden throughout December and contacted Supervisor Smith last month for assistance. As our income is currently low we would welcome help from church groups, Habitat for Humanity type groups, the Boy Scouts, etc.

She has researched how to combat psychological basis of hoarding, is following a self-study 12-step program on that, and we have been in contact with the local Catholic Charities regarding counseling for the hoarding problem.

Some in the county government are stating because of the amount of clothes in the house their inspectors cannot fully examine the structural soundness of the house (it had a new roofing added about nine years ago). BUT  they are ASSUMING it to be totally bad and say they do not have enough money to clean it out, so it would be cheaper for the COUNTY to demolish and haul away! She should then be forced to sell the property at fire sale prices! And then she would have to move somewhere without having a way of making a living like  her small farm business she had operated on her property.

I know nobody wants to make her family homeless but there are better solutions, such as waiving the ridiculous $30,000 chicken fine so they can spend their money on cleaning and fixing the place.

Thank you for your consideration.

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