‘We’ll Never Have High-Rent Notices Again’ : Elderly Residents Buy Their Mobile Home Park

Almost two years ago, frustrated by rising rents that were practically devastating their modest fixed incomes, 173 elderly residents of an Anaheim mobile home park began a bold effort to stabilize their finances--and guarantee their future.

On Monday, their long road to economic freedom was realized when they became official owners of the Cherokee Mobile Home Park at 235 S. Beach Blvd.

“We’ve shed a lot of tears, but today we shed tears of joy,” said Sophie Ertl, president of the park’s mobile home owners association, before Anaheim Mayor Don Roth and other city officials cut a long red ribbon to touch off the residents’ ownership celebration.

In acquiring the 17-acre property, the 173 residents made history by becoming the first group of tenants in the county to band together to buy a mobile home park. Statewide, it has happened only four times.

The Cherokee Park residents also were the first recipients of aid from the new State of California Mobile Home Park Assistance Program, which was recently set up specifically to help residents who attempt to buy their mobile home parks.

Jerry Rioux, who heads the state program in Sacramento, said that $5 of each mobile home registration fee in the state helps fund the program.

“This program is set up to help only people who already live in a mobile home park,” Rioux said in a telephone interview.

The cost of the Cherokee Mobile Home Park was $5.6 million, $636,000 of which was provided by the new state program. The rest was privately financed. And in becoming one of the 173 owners of the park, each resident had to put up $3,400 toward the purchase price.

The City of Anaheim added $70,000 to money put up by the state to finance the shares of about 40 lower-income residents who could not afford the $3,400.

The Los Angeles Community Design Center, a nonprofit planning and architectural firm that works with community groups to structure special neighborhood projects, spent 22 months helping the residents of Cherokee Park realize their goal of ownership.

Anita Landecker, director of the design center, said that her firm is working on three other similar projects in Los Angeles. She said resident ownership of mobile home parks will probably be a new trend.

“This is really the way to go for people on fixed incomes. Rents usually increase about 15% or 20% a year while Social Security benefits only increase about 5%,” she said. “So the people on fixed incomes can get squeezed very easily.”

Ertl said that by buying the park, the elderly residents will not have to worry about rising rents, or a developer coming in and turning their park into an office or condominium project.

“Our worries are over now,” she said. “We know that no one can force us to leave.”

As the city dignitaries cut the ribbon and scores of red, white and blue balloons were sent floating over the modest mobile home park, Ertl choked back tears of joy.

“This signifies to us all freedom from landlords and freedom from high rents,” she declared.

City Councilman Irv Pickler told the residents that they had achieved a worthy milestone and set an example for other low-income elderly people.

“This should be the beginning of a new era, and it is a stepping stone,” Pickler said. “We’re very proud of you . . . you really did it all on your own.”

Virginia Sims, the association’s vice president and long a supporter of the plan to purchase the mobile home park, stood in the recreational hall, beaming at her fellow residents who had gathered to celebrate.

“Just think,” she whispered to no one in particular, “we’ll never have high-rent notices again.”