Anchorage

Squalor cited in suit against city land trust

Tenants of John's Motel & RV Park on Mountain View Drive have filed a lawsuit, saying they're owed for months of living in substandard, sewage-tainted conditions.

The Anchorage Community Land Trust, an urban renewal nonprofit, took over the worn Mountain View motel and RV park last year with plans to fix it up or use it in a new way. The site was never in the best condition, but over the winter backed-up sewage soiled motel rooms and RVs. The power went out, and people lost heat.

"It's a maintenance nightmare, they (the land trust) have done virtually nothing to resolve it, and they've mistreated these people," said David Schlerf, an attorney with the law office of Darryl Jones who filed the suit last week.

"We are going to be looking for a substantial sum of money."

Even though few people had formal rental agreements, the land trust violated the state landlord tenant act, he said.

George Cannelos, chair of the trust board, called the suit "regrettable" but wouldn't comment on the specifics. A communication problem with staff kept the board in the dark about the mounting troubles until the spring, he said. The trust's lawyer, Jim Gorski, did not return a call for comment on Tuesday.

At the beginning of April, discovering the disrepair, the Land Trust sent eviction letters to the approximately 40 people living in the motel rooms and aging RVs. About half the people moved; the others got a lawyer. So far, the suit has 18 plaintiffs, some of whom no longer live there, Schlerf said.

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The tenants said they stayed because they couldn't afford to move. Some say they suffered health problems because of the sewage. Their ailments included rashes, headaches and one case of hepatitis A, according to Schlerf.

The trust board members acted as soon as they learned of the problems, Cannelos said. The park manager was fired in March. Suzanne Little, the former chief executive, resigned last month. The tenants never complained directly to the board, he said.

"This is a problem that has taken years to develop and we just came into ownership last year," Cannelos said. "Everybody could have done a better job at communications."

The land trust acquired the site from the municipality. The city had owned the property for a short time after getting it from a longtime owner, who could not be reached.

The land trust is working to help the tenants find housing elsewhere and has hired a social worker who keeps regular hours there, he said. The trust also made some repairs and snaked the sewer system. It was seriously backed up with "inappropriate" objects, he said. The trust offered assistance with deposits on apartments elsewhere and free rent for April so tenants could save for their moves. But the 13 tenants who remain aren't interested.

"I'm disappointed that we are working in good faith to help people find housing and many are turning down the help," Cannelos said.

It was unclear whether some of those who are asking for damages had been paying rent in the first place, he said.

"The records are woefully incomplete, " he said.

The trust is still on track to close down the park, and eventually find a better use for the roughly 2 acres, he said. The municipal tax assessment put the value of the land at $1.4 million.

C.K. McKellar, a former John's RV tenant who helped organize his neighbors to join the suit, recently moved to another RV park. He said he might have been happy just to get his rent back for the last year, which he said was around $5,000. The suit will hold the trust responsible for collecting rent without keeping up the park.

"I do think they were scamming us," he said.

Daily News reporter Julia O'Malley can be reached at jomalley@adn.com or 257-4325.

By JULIA O'MALLEY

Anchorage Daily News

Julia O'Malley

Anchorage-based Julia O'Malley is a former ADN reporter, columnist and editor. She received a James Beard national food writing award in 2018, and a collection of her work, "The Whale and the Cupcake: Stories of Subsistence, Longing, and Community in Alaska," was published in 2019. She's currently writer in residence at the Anchorage Museum.

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