SLO County family of 6 searches for new home after being evicted from motel: ‘I’m scared’

Diana Suhovich and her fiance Thomas Oxley never thought they’d be facing homelessness with four of their five children and beloved 15-year-old dog, Zeus.

But as of Tuesday, that was very close to being the reality for the longtime North Coast family.

What happened to bring the family, one in which both parents were working, to that situation?

First, the Cambria home owned by Oxley’s family — where the couple and their kids had lived for a dozen years as they cared for Oxley’s uncle — was sold in January.

Thomas Oxley, Suhovich and the four kids had to leave.

He received some of the proceeds from the sale, and he and Suhovich began searching for more permanent housing — a house, an apartment or maybe even a recreational vehicle — where they all could live.

“I’ve looked everywhere in the county,” a discouraged Suhovich said about their months-long search.

After staying with a family member in Greenfield and commuting an hour and a half to work and school, the couple began leasing two rooms at what was previously the Day’s Inn motel in San Simeon. It was sold earlier this year and renamed to Pacific Coast Roadhouse.

There, the family’s rent was a daunting $5,200 a month.

Suhovich and Oxley, both in their 40s, were working full-time, but their finances were very tight, they said, especially considering skyrocketing gas costs affecting their commutes to out-of-town jobs, the whole family getting COVID-19 and inflation making everything more expensive.

Add the severe scarcity of available rentals in the area, and they were facing the perfect storm.

Then, on July 18, the family was suddenly evicted from the motel. They were told they had to be out by 3 p.m. July 20.

They said no reason was stated.

When interviewed by The Tribune, Pacific Coast Roadhouse manager Neal Bhakta declined to comment on the family’s eviction from the motel, which is in the midst of being completely renovated.

He would say only that the family had been “valued guests here.”

“It’s a private matter, and I want to protect their privacy,” he said.

After searching unsuccessfully for housing on the North Coast, Suhovich turned to the online community for ideas to help keep her kids off the streets.

She found encouragement on Nextdoor, but no solutions to their problem.

“It ‘s been an overwhelming response, mostly from people I don’t even know,” Suhovich said Tuesday. “They gave me numbers to call, people to talk to,” links to resources she hadn’t known existed.

Suhovich and her family are still searching for permanent housing. “We are desperate to keep a roof over our heads, keep our heads above water,” she said.

Evicted SLO County family faces new challenges after job ends

The day after she and her family got the eviction notice, Suhovich found temporary replacement housing at another motel down the street.

Those two rooms at Motel 6 are costing the family even more than they had been paying before, she said, although a firm rate or commitment to rent the rooms long-term hadn’t yet been approved as of Tuesday.

Then the couple received another economic blow.

Oxley’s farm harvest job ran out on July 22, so he’s been pounding the pavement trying to find a new job while also caring for the couple’s children with help from their eldest son.

Suhovich works for Target in Paso Robles and must set aside gas money to get there.

She applied for the state’s CalFresh food assistance program, but only qualified for a subsidy of $41 a month.

When both she and her fiance were working, they made “too much to get financial aid, but not enough to survive,” Suhovich added.

After Oxley’s job ended, Suhovich immediately sought additional employment that she could do during her off time.

She’s now a DoorDash delivery person when she’s not at Target, and she’s interviewing for a new job in Cambria as well.

If she gets it, Suhovich will continue working at Target part-time, she said, adding that her managers and coworkers have been “enormously helpful and understanding. I’m so lucky to work for a company like this.”

Oxley, too, has an appointment about a possible job.

But they’re still in a motel that really doesn’t want them there, they said.

Renting on the North Coast

Situations like Suhovich’s surface frequently on social media sites — although with four children and a dog involved, theirs may be one of the most extreme cases.

Housing is incredibly tight on the North Coast, and vacant houses that aren’t reserved for vacation rentals can be extremely expensive to rent, if they’re even on the rental market.

Many who own second homes in the area don’t have a financial need to rent the houses, so the residences sit vacant whenever the owners, their family members and friends aren’t staying there.

Robin Cloward is the owner of Quality Management Services in Cambria, which manages rental properties.

Cloward said Friday that she regularly fields calls from working folks who desperately need North Coast housing, but either can’t find it or can’t afford what they do find.

She’d like to help them, but said, “the owners set the rent, I don’t.”

Cloward also has clients who bought homes during the recent buying frenzy and who now have to charge higher rents to cover their mortgage and other expenses.

There are a also lot more people looking to rent long term than there are homeowners to rent to them, she said.

Cloward estimated that current monthly rents on the North Coast range from $1,100 to $1,500, including utilities, for a studio; from $1,700 to $2,400 for a one-bedroom apartment or house; $2,000 to $2,500 for a two-bedroom; and $2,800 to $3,500 for a three-bedroom home.

Vacation rentals have also reduced potential North Coast housing for rent.

As of July 13, AirDNA data indicated there were 261 active Cambria vacation rental listings on VRBO and Airbnb, with 63% of them operated as full-time rentals.

Cambria had the fifth highest number of vacation rentals of any community in the county, and more than any other community in an unincorporated area.

Community rallies to help Cambria family

On July 24, Suhovich created a GoFundMe fundraiser, titled “Homeless Family in Need,” seeking help from the community.

“I have been struggling and working as many hours as I can to keep this roof over my kids’ heads,” she wrote on GoFundMe. “I can only do so much, and now I’m scared. I feel like I have let my family down, and that is not acceptable. I am reaching out in hopes that someone might have some resources to help my family.”

As of Monday, the fundraiser had raised $790 toward a $5,000 goal.

Those donations, for which Suhovich said she’s extremely grateful, have so far helped her pay next week’s rent, which took all the money the family had.

While they’ve been looking for housing all over the Central Coast, the family’s lives have for more than a decade been wrapped up in the Cambria-San Simeon area. They’d love to continue to live on the North Coast, they said.

As the family hangs on, hoping for miracles, Suhovich is battling despair over the situation.

They have no extended family on which they can rely, she said, but she is grateful “our kids are there for us.

”Their kids are Annalise Oxley, 7; Blake Oxley, 10; Anthony Capossele, 13; Aiden Pacheco, 18; and Kirsten Pacheco, 21, who does not live with them.

Aiden graduated from Coast Union High School in June, and is registered to start at Cuesta College in August.

He also wants to go to work, perhaps for Target, to help his family. Transportation could be a problem, though, the family said.

“They tell me they’re all right, they’re happy,” Suhovich said of her children. “We’re all we have and we know we can rely on each other.”

The family also has people in town who want to help or already have. But they, too, are hamstrung when it comes to finding long-term housing.

Former Cambria fire chief Bob Putney is among those who are trying to help.

“They just need a place to land where they can restart their lives,” he said Friday. “I hate to see them in this type of situation, especially those awesome kids. I worry about them.”

Early in their ordeal, Putney encouraged the family to buy an RV or travel trailer as a stop-gap, but finding a place to live in it is another problem.

San Luis Obispo County’s safe parking site off Highway 1 is full and living in a recreational vehicle on private land, even on a ranch, isn’t allowed in the county. That leaves finding space at a campground or travel trailer park, which can be expensive and usually doesn’t allow for long-term parking, Suhovich said.

“I just hope somebody has room for them somewhere that they can stay for a while,” Putney said.

How to help

People who want to help the couple and their children can donate to their GoFundMe fundraiser at https://gofund.me/40708b50 or send the donation directly to Suhovich at P.O. Box 1139, Cambria CA 93428.

They can also leave a message for the family by calling 805-781-7904 or emailing ktanner@thetribunenews.com.