Las Cruces Trailer Park Residents Say They’ve Been Without Water For 8 Days

Eight days without even a decent shower.

For more than a week, tenants at Dove Canyon, a mobile home community in South Las Cruces, have gone without water.

Residents said they want to know why it is taking so long to fix broken water lines, while the property manager said, it is not all her responsibility.

Tenants told ABC-7’s New Mexico Mobile Newsroom they are struggling without water, and now they really just want some help.

“The toilets can’t flush properly, you can’t clean properly, so it’s making everybody sick,” Jackie Torres, a tenant, said.

For the past eight days, Torres said, when she turns on her faucet, there is a gurgling sound but it is not water. Instead, just a few drops trickle out.

“We need water and we need this park being improved,” Torres said. “We need a manager to get a hold of.”

A sign posted on the office at Dove Canyon indicates a manager should be available during weekdays. But ABC-7 found a “closed” sign hanging in a window, and no property manager when we knocked on the door in the middle of the afternoon Wednesday.

“I feel like she doesn’t care,” Torres said.

ABC-7 spotted two plumbers fixing pipes on a vacant lot.

“There are leaks all over the place and there’s nothing to be done about it,” Juan Acosta, another tenant, said, as he watched the repair work.

Property Manager Anita Martinez told ABC-7 over the phone, she was not on-site because she was out buying supplies for crews to fix the broken water lines.

“Right now I’m running around getting more plumbing parts,” Martinez said. “We’re not just putting them on the burner, we’re trying to help them; I don’t want them to think I don’t care. We’re working as fast as we can.”

But some residents said they feel Martinez gives one excuse after another.

“I can understand their frustration, and I can understand they are angry toward me, I totally understand, but this was something I did not bring to them…this was due to the weather conditions,” Martinez said.

Martinez said she is only responsible for offering residents access to water, but if individual tenants have broken connections under their trailers, Martinez said, it is up to them to get them fixed.

However, in Torres’ lease agreement, it is worded that management does have the right to enter a resident’s property to make adequate utility repairs.

“It’s sad that somebody can allow her to manage a place like this for so long and get away with so much,” Torres said.

When asked, Martinez could not give ABC-7 a definitive timeline for when water will be restored to all tenants.

UPDATE: Martinez told ABC-7 water was restored to all tenants by Wednesday evening. Plumbers were also going door-to-door, checking with individual tenants to make sure they had water, Martinez said.

Torres confirmed with ABC-7 she does indeed have her water back, and said, all residents received apology letters from Martinez Wednesday afternoon.