Relocation: A Moral Dilemma

The rejuvenation of older, run-down and overcrowded apartment complexes with improved housing is not without its costs. Those who pay a high price--too high, in some cases--are the residents of the older housing who are forced out because they can’t afford the new apartments.

In Orange County, that becomes an especially troublesome factor because of the extremely low vacancy rate and the scarcity of affordable housing for displaced residents, most of whom earn considerably less than the county’s median income. They simply have no place else to go.

Two groups of apartment tenants, one in southwest Santa Ana and the other in the Chevy Chase section of Anaheim, are currently in that predicament. Both are fighting their relocation. The reactions of the two cities are interesting.

In Anaheim, the City Council last Tuesday contracted with a consulting firm to draw up a relocation plan for the 200 families that will probably have to relocate if all the development details can be worked out.

Larry J. Cabrera, Anaheim’s housing coordinator, insists that “no one will be placed on the streets.” Any relocation plan is supposed to include helping residents find adequate housing, paying moving costs and subsidizing higher rents. And 25% of the new project will include affordable housing.

In contrast, Santa Ana residents on West 5th Street who face relocation because their homes will be demolished to make room for a new apartment project have secured a court order to block eviction. A hearing is scheduled for Monday. Residents claim the city approved the project without notifying them and they would like the city and developer to help them find other suitable housing or provide some low-income units within the proposed new project.

Santa Ana City Atty. Edward J. Cooper says the city is not required to send renters hearing notices and has no involvement in that element of private development in which the property owner has “the right to develop the land in whatever way he wants.”

We, too, believe that people have the right to improve their property. But with that right goes certain obligations--moral if not legal ones--to help those made homeless in the process. That’s something responsible developers and public officials should not try to avoid.