A California commune filled with ‘dirty hippies’ is closing down after losing a 25-year battle with its local government.
The ‘Yee Haw’ commune is an improvised 12-acre community located in Trinidad, California, a small coastal town with around 300 inhabitants.
Its supporters said the commune’s longtime owner Charles Garth provided a makeshift option to combat Trinidad’s steep housing costs. About ten people currently live at the commune.
Critics said Yee Haw posed a biohazard because of a lack of fire and carbon dioxide detectors, electrical hazards, wood stoves without flues and unsafe structures.
They slammed Garth as irresponsible and claimed he had 25 years to improve the settlement’s conditions.
Now, Yee Haw is set to shutter after the Humboldt County board of supervisors – which oversees Trinidad – voted to abate the settlement.
Rex Bohn, Humboldt County’s first district supervisor, said at the September 23 board meeting: ‘It’s time to do the right thing and clean up the property for the area.’
The Humboldt County board of supervisors voted to abate the Yee Haw settlement
The so-called ‘Yee Haw’ commune is a 12-acre makeshift settlement in Trinidad, California
Critics said that the commune posed a biohazard, while supporters said Yee Haw offered an alternative to fight Humboldt County’s steep housing market
He added in an exasperated tone: ‘We have given 25 years of code enforcement, trying to bring [Garth] in line.
‘What’s the definition of insanity? Doing the same thing over and over again with the same result?’
Photos previously captured of Yee Haw showed the community consisting of makeshift outhouses made from plywood and buckets.
Containers with human waste inside were spotted in the illegally-constructed homes.
John H. Ford, Humboldt County’s director of planning and building, said last year that Garth owed $63,000 in fines, penalties and administration costs.
That amount is now estimated to be around $100,000, according to the Times-Standard.
The commune had last been granted a nine-month compliance period in January but failed to do so.
Charles Garth (pictured) is the commune’s longtime owner, although the property was recently transferred to his son’s company
Photos of Yee Haw showed the community consisting of makeshift outhouses made from plywood and buckets
Containers with human waste inside were spotted in the illegally-constructed homes
Bohn explained: ‘Nothing – nada – nothing has happened.
‘It’s not about who the neighbor is. It’s not about the housing. We’ve got rules we’ve got to stand by.’
The drama surrounding Yee Haw began in May 2001, when Humboldt County officials served the settlement with its first abatement notices.
It was discovered that most ‘homes’ lacked smoke and carbon monoxide detectors.
Motor vehicles were also found ‘being lived in with extension cords running through the windows’, according to SFGATE.
At the September board of supervisors meeting, Garth pleaded for more time.
He said: ‘I need a new deal. Come on, you guys. I’m doing the right thing.
‘Your director has already stated numerous times that there’s no way to build affordable housing.
‘I can build affordable housing all day till the cows come home. I can build it. Just let me do it.’
Residents began to butt heads with county official back in May 2001 when the were served abatement notices after finding dangerous code violations on the property by the Planning and Building unit
The drama surrounding Yee Haw began in May 2001
Humboldt County officials said that Yee Haw had been ‘given 25 years’ to be compliant
Yee Haw’s shuttering could be complicated by the fact that the commune is now under the ownership of Evergreen Non-Profits, which is headed by Garth’s son James.
The company was established in 2022, according to California state documents.
A letter signed by the Humboldt County planning and building department that was viewed by the Daily Mail listed James A. Garth’s address in Eureka, California – about 23 miles from Trinidad.
Garth transferred the property – 450 and 473 Quarry Road in Trinidad – to Evergreen Non-Profits on February 26, 2025, as per a quitclaim deed viewed by the Daily Mail.
Evergreen Non-Profits was represented at the latest board of supervisors meeting by Allen K. Ng, who is listed as the company’s chief financial officer.
Ng identified himself as a ‘long-term member of this community’ with a career in land management and construction.
He said: ‘We’ve recently taken ownership of the property known as Yee Haw and are fully aware of this difficult history and serious water quality concerns.’
Allen Ng said Evergreen Non-Profits was ‘making a plan to get things in better shape’
Humboldt County supervisor Rex Bohn is pictured above
The commune is now under the ownership of Evergreen Non-Profits
Ng claimed that Evergreen Non-Profits had done water testing, removed metal and was ‘making a plan to get things in better shape’.
An unidentified member of the community also spoke at the board of supervisors meeting to make his case for Yee Haw and its longtime owner.
He said: ‘Charles is not made for bureaucracy. He’s taken everything you’ve told him to heart.
‘More than half the people have left. He’s cleaned up and he cleans up often.’
The unidentified man also accused Humboldt County of having ‘no accommodation’ for Garth.
He added: ‘The man’s trying his best. He’s just not trying like you might expect him to from someone who knows how to go through the bureaucratic process, but he’s just unaccommodated.’
Steve Madrone, the fifth district supervisor, represents Trinidad – where Yee Haw is located.
The supervisor said: ‘I have gone to bat for this community for my entire six-and-a-half years here as a board member over and over again.
‘Promises keep being made but then they don’t get fulfilled. There are limits to our ability to trust and believe that these things are going to happen if we give more time.’
Renters in Humboldt County need to earn 1.5 times California’s minimum wage to afford the average monthly rent. Pictured homes in Trinidad, California
Rent in the county has gone up by about 21% in the last five years, leading to makeshift homes such as the one pictured
Humboldt County supervisor Steve Madrone said he was ‘concerned’ about housing in the area
Madrone added: ‘I’m always concerned about housing. [Yee Haw] has been housing for a lot of people.
‘As somebody said, regardless of the code issues, it is still a whole lot safer place to be than out on the streets. I don’t know anybody that would disagree with that but it doesn’t mean we can look the other way.’
One tenant of Yee Haw, who has lived there for six years with her family, said she knows from an outside perspective they look like a ‘bunch of dirty hippies’ but that she values her community and the cabin she lives in.
Renters in Humboldt County need to earn $24.46 per hour – 1.5 times the California minimum wage – to afford the average monthly asking rent of $1,272, according to the California House Partnership.
It was estimated that 6,015 low-income renter households in Humboldt County do not have access to an affordable home.
Meanwhile, rent in the county has gone up by about 21 percent in the last five years.
California recently rolled back a landmark environmental law in an attempt to build more homes as the state grapples with a widespread homelessness crisis.
The state’s Democrat governor Gavin Newsom scaled back the California Environmental Quality Act, which then-governor Ronald Reagan passed in 1970.
The law ensured that both state and local governments performed environmental impact reviews before starting new construction projects.
Developers said the bill allowed opponents to delay projects for years by tying them up in bureaucratic challenges.
More than 187,000 people are homeless in California – 24 percent of the entire homeless population in the US – according to the Public Policy Institute of California.
