Yeehaw Holding ‘BBQ, Blockade, and Carnival’ Starting Today to Stop Demolition

This is a press release from Yeehaw:

Humboldt County Code Enforcement Unit (CEU) has been working to eradicate(/demolish) the Yeehaw community in Trinidad since 2001.  The effort was paused in 2007 after the CEU held up the residents and their children at gunpoint. (https://www.northcoastjournal.com/humboldt/codes-damned-codes/Content?oid=2126751)

With the help of the Civil Liberties Monitoring Project (CLMP) that incident led to the disarmament of the CEU followed by “10 years of peace” as owner Charles Garth put it.  A mutual settlement agreement was made between the County and Garth in 2008, where Garth and the tenants agreed to not sue the county “in exchange for being left alone,” Garth explained, “The county was supposed to process my permits for alternative owner-built homes but they let it expire.”   Garth says he then followed bad legal advice to not contact the County if they didnt contact him.

In 2017 the CEU began abatement actions again against Yeehaw,  claiming Garth did not follow through with permitting or removing excess cars and junk.  Garth said the land was covered with cars and junk when he moved there 35 years ago and so far he has removed about 60 vehicles and other items, and that effort is ongoing.  Garth offered to pay the CEU a $62,000 fine that was imposed by the Board of Supervisors on February 2, but he claims the CEU told him that abatement was inevitable and $62,000 was no longer enough to cover the costs.

Yeehaw currently has twelve livable structures made out of largely recycled materials which house approximately 20 people including elderly, activists, disabled, healthcare workers, a cancer survivor, and families with young children. Residents say they have nowhere else to go and the County lacks alternative affordable housing options.

One resident facing the demolition of his home says,   “It’s as if the county thinks its safer for us to be homeless than to live here.”

Humboldt county Director John Ford says the tenants were warned to vacate in 2017 and that the community is a danger to the health and safety of its residents and the environment.

Ford stated, “I am very concerned by the people that live there …I am open to creative solutions, though this is something that’s been going on for a long long time.  I don’t want to be heartless, but on the other hand the Public Health Officer in 2017 issued an order to have all of those places not lived in anymore.  It has been a long time that everybody has known that those shouldnt be dwellings right now.”

Today Yeehaw residents are attempting to work out a peaceful resolution that allows them to stay on the land.  Charles Garth is inviting the entire community to a bbq, blockade, and carnival at Yeehaw starting Sunday, August 22 and it will be ongoing until the demolition is halted. Garth says, “Bring your camping gear, musical instruments, gas masks, and food to share.”

Yeehaw is located at 473 Quarry Rd., Trinidad, just past the Mercer Fraser Rock Quarry at the end of Quarry Rd.

Yeehaw and Charles

Charles Garth standing in front of one of Yeehaw’s structures and a Maypole. [Photo by Nikki Norris]

Earlier: Yeehaw!: A Letter Writer Celebrates a Local Institution and Protests the Humboldt County Building Department’s Attempt to Take Much of It Down

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28 Comments
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VHDA
Guest
VHDA
2 years ago

Yes those peaceful people living warm, safe & dry in the winter will find the best pursuit of safe happiness living alone, homeless under some freeway overpass in the middle of winter. 😢

Guest
Guest
Guest
2 years ago

Safe Homes and a Code Enforcement Unit of 10 people, I wonder where they will turn their sights on next. How many homes in the county are non permitted, as we face inflation, skyrocketing real estate, and a recession.

👆
Guest
👆
2 years ago
Reply to  Guest

This is only the beginning!

Xebeche
Guest
Xebeche
2 years ago
Reply to  Guest

Permitted or not, half the homes in the county from Rio Dell south would not pass an inspection.
This is tyranny of the well off over those less prosperous. The comfortable are made less so by what they see only as squalor. Our homes should be our castles, whether or not they meet the 21st century standard of triple pane windows and an electrical outlet every 8′.
What matter your property values if your neighbor is made homeless by your effort to protect it?

Ullr Rover
Guest
Ullr Rover
2 years ago

It’s perfectly Ok to live in a cardboard box, but if want to live in a plywood box it must be permitted and engineered with sprinklers.

Most of the housing issues could be resolved if the government got out of the way.

Mailguy
Guest
Mailguy
2 years ago

This is complete bullshit screw the county they should clean up the countless hell holes in old town eureka and leave the salton sea of Trinidad alone . At least these people are trying to live in peace with the community. God bless yeehaw residents.

Just Saying
Guest
Just Saying
2 years ago
Reply to  Mailguy

Old Town isn’t in the county’s jurisdiction. That’s City of Eureka.

guest
Guest
guest
2 years ago

Maybe some fundraiser that doesn’t involve food would be safer.

Xebeche
Guest
Xebeche
2 years ago
Reply to  guest

Your kitchen would probably not pass an inspection. Tread with caution

Jennifer Mahoney
Guest
2 years ago

Get an engineer on it again and file for the permits. You are legally allowed to do so once every 5 years. Pick one that works with code enforcement regularly.

Xebeche
Guest
Xebeche
2 years ago

You are asking people living on the margins to spend probably hundreds of thousands of dollars. You are aware of that, right?

For sure
Guest
For sure
2 years ago

How much will the county spend to demolish YeeHaw, and make 20 ppl homeless? Why not spend that same amount to help these folks get up to speed for Alternative Owner Built permits? If John Ford has any kind of a heart, he will easily see the Nazi-ism of his thinking. This is BEYOND OUTRAGEOUS!!!
The county needs to recognize & honor ppl who live a simple, alternative lifestyle in today’s crazy world. It’s one of the great attractions of Humboldt: Free Thinkers!

Thankful For Freedom
Guest
Thankful For Freedom
2 years ago
Reply to  For sure

Two responses to your post, neither of which address the topic of the article.

First: Please go watch Shindler’s List, then come back and explain how any of this is Nazi-ism!? People throw that terminology around have little idea what it really means. My family lived through it, they know. It’s troubling to see/hear it used in such a casual manner.

Second: “Free Thinking” seems to be limited to certain ideologies anymore. That in and of itself is not Freedom.

As far as the Yee Haw community, proactivity and working together to improve the situation takes both sides. Neither to ignore the county or decimate the community is the answer. I hope the issue is worked out in a manner that helps all involved.

Thanks for letting me respond.

Xebeche
Guest
Xebeche
2 years ago
Reply to  For sure

John Ford with a heart? You must be kidding. Only a cash register ticking in that chest.

By the Way
Guest
By the Way
2 years ago

Dave Silverbrand did a story on this earlier this month and talked to some of the people there
https://www.facebook.com/NorthCoastNewsTV/videos/509208230371058/

Garth's neighbor
Guest
Garth's neighbor
2 years ago
Reply to  By the Way

Dave Silver brand is a national treasure.. Charles Garth is a solid guy, anyone would be lucky to have him is a neighbor. Doesn’t surprise me that he’s run afoul of the county I don’t imagine he’s great with paperwork or organizational skills. Problems at Yehaw may be needing to be addressed but Ford is neither creative nor compassionate enough for the task. Humboldt county planning doesn’t serve everyone equally, They have their favorites, to put it politely. I guess that would be garden variety corruption on a county level, it’s not too surprising but when you come up against it it is infuriating. Permits are not granted on a by the book basis, planning has people they prefer to deal with and repeat customers or politically connected entities that are given uneven consideration. When your interests are up against someone who is favored by county planning, you will lose.

Freeman Lawless
Guest
Freeman Lawless
2 years ago

Charles is a misogynistic sexual predator whose ego and bad deeds far out weigh any benefit he brings to this community. Taking money from people so they can live in rat infested buses is not helpful. If the option is to be unhoused or to be exploited in filth its time to question what you are doing with your life. Trinidad is not for everyone cause if it were it be as awful as Eureka

Glen
Guest
Glen
2 years ago

Trinidad is not for everyone? Please elaborate.

Been There
Guest
Been There
2 years ago

Have you ever lived next to “free thinkers” who build a shanty town and use the bathroom all over their property? It’s a housing situation at Yeehaw, not a community. A landlord making rent off shanties. Once we had a neighbor on our rural street who thought it would be great to have 16 people living in a dozen shacks, using a communal latrine and bringing in bottled water. It wasn’t a community, the owner got to make his mortgage and travel to Europe for several weeks a year. I wouldn’t have eaten any food they prepared for the BBQ.

Third World County
Guest
Third World County
2 years ago

Ford says”I don’t want to be heartless” but you are John but you are. Your actions show it and during a pandemic. John Ford has failed to create affordable housing required by the state. First of all the YeeHaw community is next to a rock Quarry where the county should be focusing their environmental concerns. Safety concerns will be a big issue when the evicted folks are living on the streets.
The property owner next to me has the same thing going with multiple dwellings when the parcel is zoned for one the only difference is that the property owner got a weed permit and is bringing in lots of pot taxes. The same out of code housing, people living in out of code cabins running on extension cords non compliant buildings the county permitted some in the flood zone. They got them permitted by renaming all of the building residences as storage or bunkhouse, studio, that allows the property owner to get around the building and planning requirements and the county can get their compliant pot farm to rake in tax money. I don’t think John Ford likes the Marijuana culture unless they are paying money in taxes to support his staff. He needs to go.

Ben Round
Guest
Ben Round
2 years ago

Other than proven diseases, imminent danger, or abuse, LEAVE THEM ALONE!

Guest
Guest
Guest
2 years ago

I believe the law states that housing must be an immediate threat to life or liberty for them to tear it down. They are going to use Code Enforcement and fines to do what they can’t with the law. As it was in 2007, they started with Yeehaw, then came for the rest. By using a property they think no one will defend they start their process. The pot farms are wiped out either from abatements or trying to go legit, and the prices have dumped. That is repetitive of industries in Humboldt County, like logging, fishing, etc. But housing, at a time when a recession is looming and Homelessness is at an all time high with NO solution in the near future. This can’t be allowed to happen.

ED Denson
Guest
ED Denson
2 years ago

TRO on KMUD from 7-8 Thursday evening will feature Nichole Norris, who has been covering the Yeehaw situation, to give us a complete explanation of the reason this intentional community is in the headlines – and in the path of the Planning Department’s bulldozers. KMUD 91.1, KLAI 90.3, KMUE 88.1? and KMUD.org. see you on the radio.

Nichole Norris
Guest
Nichole Norris
2 years ago
Reply to  ED Denson

It’s going to be a great show ED! Can’t wait till you meet Claire too 🙂 with all these great comments we might want to leave the rest of the show open for call ins, yeah? Unless you can get Nicolette on? I bet he is down to join us. If anyone is interested in my kmud show on yeehaw (pt 1) https://soundcloud.app.goo.gl/cHv6XeC3LWKGM6gAA

Part 2 is September 13 7-9am kmud.org

Country Joe
Guest
Country Joe
2 years ago

The fact is that the place is an unregulated shit hole…Nothing to yeehaw about…

festerville NIMBY
Guest
festerville NIMBY
2 years ago

Yeah right. This is the favela model of housing.
Tearing slums like this down used to be considered progress.
Back in the olden times housing projects got built as replacement of the slum housing torn down.
Except this is just another Floyd squires style slum with an on site hippie slumlord vs an offsite Beverly hillbilly slumlord

Hugh Manatee
Guest
Hugh Manatee
2 years ago

Funny, I was thinking the same thing.
Everyone hates on Squires but loves this guy?
Seems like two peas in a pod to me.
According to a 13 year old article, Garth was charging $250 a month rent to live there and had around 20 dwelling sites. That’s $5000 a month he is making IF he hasn’t raised his rent in the last 13 years.
Is he helping or taking advantage? Seems there are two sides to this coin.

Simon Girty Pteradon
Guest
Simon Girty Pteradon
2 years ago

Can’t take a crap on your own property without someone whining. What a bunch of turds. Leave the hippies alone and let them eat their Pizzas with forks and Knives.