Max Becherer / Staff
Juanita Segura, with son Miguel, 4, and daughter Jessica, 5, tends to the parcel where she once hoped to build a home in "Perra Flaca."

Little has changed in the year since the Arizona Daily Star first reported on the ramshackle cluster of homes in Cochise County sometimes called 'Perra Flaca.' But government has taken notice, and residents remain hopeful that conditions will improve.

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WILLCOX - Several times a week, Juanita Segura packs her two children and the family dogs into her aging Toyota pickup and drives 15 miles from Willcox to Winchester Heights to water trees and shrubs in a yard without a home.

She had once hoped to build a house here. Now Segura doubts she'll ever live in the rural subdivision known officially as Winchester Heights, a muddle of dilapidated dwellings its residents more often call Perra Flaca - skinny bitch.

A year after the Arizona Daily Star reported on the community, residents here continue to live in conditions akin to a poverty-stricken Mexican colonia. It has an inadequate potable water system, no sanitary sewage treatment, rundown, overcrowded housing, pothole-filled dirt roads and piles of garbage and litter.

But there is more government attention and the promise of better living.

"It's filthy here, and there's not much security. That's why I don't live here," said Segura, a single mother who works - when there is any job to be had - in the fields and orchards of the fertile northern reaches of the Sulphur Springs Valley.

"People say this place is like living in Mexico, but Mexico is nothing like this."

Hilda Garcia shares a similar opinion, as she speaks from the front porch of her trailer across the street from the lot Segura carefully tends.

"This place is a disaster, a disgrace," she said. "Dogs run loose. There's garbage everywhere. And on the weekends there's a lot of drinking, parties and people speeding up and down the roads."

Cochise County officials say they're working with the community to try to clean up the long-standing problems. And they're working with the federal government in an effort to get it to address the root problem - many people living here are illegal entrants leading hidden lives that make them targets of exploitation.

The county has sent letters in English and Spanish to property owners in Winchester Heights explaining county regulations that apply to housing, sanitation and other concerns, said Les Thompson, who represents northern Cochise County on the Board of Supervisors.

They also visited with employees at Eurofresh, a hothouse tomato nursery a few miles away in Graham County where many Perra Flaca residents work. Officials explained the letter and what the county is hoping to accomplish in the community.

So far, the response from many residents has been positive, and most have indicated they are eager to comply, Thompson said.

Progress has been made, but there is still a lot of work ahead in making Perra Flaca a better place to live, said Jim Vlahovich, the county's planning director.

The county recently conducted an aerial survey to map the nearly 40-year-old wildcat subdivision in order to better grasp the scale of the problems.

The county is also in the process of adjusting its comprehensive plan to recognize the distinct nature of Winchester Heights. There is an effort to provide people a way to run businesses from homes, such as stores or auto repair shops.

The county has been working with the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality and the Arizona Corporation Commission to address the problems with the community's water system. Water often runs at a trickle, and when lightning recently damaged the community's pump, there was no water.

After being hit with a notice of violation from the state, Winchester Water Company owner Charles Cardinal, a Tucsonan, indicated that he'd make improvements, said Vlahovich.

Some results of the county's cleanup efforts are already evident, said Antonio Pedrego, a former illegal entrant who now owns a couple of parcels in Winchester Heights and lives there with his family.

Recently, there has been an increasing law enforcement presence from both the Cochise County Sheriff's Department and the U.S. Border Patrol, he and other residents said.

Cochise County Animal Control has also rounded up stray dogs.

The streets are still full of potholes, and there is still garbage strewn about, but there is definite improvement that Pedrego says he wants to see continued.

"If those of us who are here legally and own property begin to clean up our places, we can make things better here," he said. "I know things will be fixed. We're not in Mexico anymore," he said.

* Contact Ignacio Ibarra at (520) 432-2766 or at nacho1@mindspring.com