Jhon and Alicia Rios are worried they may be forced out of their home in the Ozark Hills Mobile Home Park in Arnold.
The couple has been battling the city of Arnold for a month after being told on July 2 that they would have to either relocate their mobile home or abandon it.
Jhon, 55, and Alicia, 63, said their lives were turned upside down after an inspector inquired about a carport Jhon was constructing. Jhon didn’t have a permit to build the carport, so he was told to stop work and complete the proper paperwork.
Jhon said the city also told him that since the couple did not have an occupancy permit and because the home had been issued a notice of condemnation, they could no longer live in it.
“(City staff) said you need to go online to apply for the permit,” said Jhon, who moved to the U.S. from Colombia in 1989 and has dual citizenship. “If you don’t comply, the police will come to your home. (They) made it sound like they were going to arrest us or throw us on the street for having a nice, safe, beautiful home. We were willing to do (get the permits).”
Part of the problem is the amount of renovations that have been completed at the home since the condemnation letter was issued in February 2022.
“In any case where the conditions constituting the public nuisance are such that the costs to repair or maintain the building or structure so that it will no longer constitute a public nuisance equal or exceed fifty percent (50 percent) of the value of the building or structure, it shall be ordered demolished,” according to Arnold’s ordinances.
Arnold officials said they believe the Rioses have spent more than 50 percent of the home’s value on their renovations.
“That violates our ordinance and requires removal or destruction of the property,” Arnold city attorney Bob Sweeney said. “We think he did some of this innocently. He did it wrong, but we don’t think he is malicious. He is clearly in violation of the ordinances, and he did not get a single permit to do anything he has done.”
Sweeney said he discussed the issue with City Council members in a closed session after Jhon spoke to council members during their Aug. 1 meeting at City Hall.
Sweeney said he spoke to the council members in closed session because there was a threat of litigation over the matter.
He also said he has spoken with a lawyer who represents the mobile home park’s owner, Rob Rosenfeld, about the situation.
“What the council, I think very generously, has agreed to is that if he (Jhon) allows us to inspect the work that was done and that work is satisfactory, we will let him live there,” Sweeney said.
He said Jhon will have to remove some of the improvements so inspectors can see and inspect the completed work and make sure it is “up to standard and safe.”
City Administrator Bryan Richison said the city planned to take the proposal to Jhon and Alicia on Monday, after Leader deadline.
Jhon said he had been told at various times between July 2 and Aug. 1 that he would be issued an occupancy permit but then was denied the permit, so he is not sure the city will follow through.
“I don’t trust them” he said.
The problem
City officials said they became aware of the Rioses living in the mobile home without a permit when an inspector was in the area checking to see if water on the road was natural or sewage and saw the carport.
“There is a natural spring in the area and sometimes the water will run down the street,” Richison said. “There also has been sewer leaks in the area. You don’t know when you see water if it is a sewer leak or natural water.”
Jhon said he feels he’s being unfairly targeted.
“I said there are a lot of renovations being done and things have been done (to other homes in the park),” Jhon said. “How come we are the only ones visited? (A city inspector) said, ‘I guess we will have to visit (the other homeowners).’ I said, ‘It sounds like you are profiling me. Your people only visited me. They only chose me. You know that people have been doing work around the park.’
“I was then given so many days to move.”
Sweeney and Richison said Jhon was not targeted because of his race or any reason other than city staff saw the carport.
Jhon said before he started working on the carport, he asked some other people in the park if they had gotten permits for similar work.
“I guess he was gullible because he believed them when they said he didn’t need a permit,” Alicia said. “He didn’t get a permit.”
Jhon said he went to City Hall on July 3 to find out how to get an occupancy permit and other permits Arnold required.
He said he was told he would not be issued a permit, and he had two weeks to either move the mobile home or simply leave it to be demolished.
Jhon and Alicia said they spent July 4 searching for a place to move their home to, and they eventually contacted Rosenfeld about the situation.
“I said, ‘Hold the phone here,’” Rosenfeld said. “Most people are going to assume when someone from the government tells them something that it is the truth. Arnold is just bullying people.”
Other Arnold mobile home park owners have filed lawsuits against the city in state and federal court in the last year because of Arnold’s rules about mobile homes.
The lawsuit filed by Ozark Mobile Home Park LLC, which is a different park than Rosenfeld’s Ozark Hills Mobile Home Park, says, “The City’s disparate and discriminatory treatment of manufactured home parks as compared to similarly situated properties is not the product of a mistake – it is an intentional act designed and intended to regulate manufactured home parks out of existence.”
A lawsuit filed by the owner of Jeffco Estates, another mobile home park in the city, has similar complaints. That lawsuit was dismissed earlier this year, but the owner plans to refile the suit.
“There is this problem with the city of Arnold,” said Rosenfeld, who also owns other mobile home parks in Jefferson County and Colorado. “There is so much hostility to our property and all the other mobile home parks, too. They tend to just try to roll over people. They just need to change.”
Coming to Arnold
Jhon and Alicia said they moved to Missouri from Texas in 2022 to be closer to their daughter who attends college in the area.
The two said they initially moved into a home in Herculaneum but didn’t want to continue paying a mortgage and sought affordable housing.
That is when they found the mobile home for sale in Arnold.
They said they knew the city had condemned the home, but they also said the issues cited in the condemnation letter were fixed before they moved in.
Jhon said he and his wife would not have purchased the home if it looked like it did in the pictures attached to the condemnation letter the city had sent the previous owner.
“It was in much better shape,” he said. “I talked to the previous owner and there were repairs done.”
Jhon also said they didn’t know they needed to get an occupancy permit, believing one was already secured.
“The (previous owner) told us he got an occupancy permit.”
Jhon said after moving in, the couple put tin over the existing roof, put on new siding, began interior renovations and had a licensed electrician do some work.
Rosenfeld said the Rios’ home is one of the nicest in the park, adding that the attempts to forcibly remove them from the home is just another example of Arnold’s war against mobile homes.
“I have been dealing with (Arnold) for a long time,” he said. “It is one thing after another, and this is crazy.
“If you drive into our park, (the Rios’) house is just gorgeous. It stands out. It makes the park look great. We would love to get more of that. Then here is the city saying this is terrible. Look at what they have done. They spent more than 50 percent to improve the house. Who thinks that way? It is the opposite of what you should be thinking, but their thinking is they want the mobile home park to go away. They don’t want it to be nicer.”
Jhon said he is willing to do what is needed to get the necessary permits, and he and his wife want to remain in Arnold.
“We just want to finish our days in this home,” he said. “We just need peace. That is all we want.”