Anaheim : Builders Issue Pledge to Low-Income Tenants

Developers of a project that could mean relocation for about 200 low-income families in the Chevy Chase neighborhood indicated Wednesday that they will not evict tenants of overcrowded apartments before the project is approved.

Terrance K. Barry, who is co-partner in the project with fast-food magnate Carl Karcher, said during a meeting with community agencies that had expressed concern about the welfare of the residents that he would have “no problems” spelling out that pledge in the escrow agreement for his purchase of a majority of the area’s 380 households.

“I have no interest in being a part of this project if it’s going to be to the detriment of the people out there,” he said.

Barry was less enthusiastic about a plea from Mary Ann Gaido of the county Human Relations Commission about the need for more three- and four-bedroom units in the planned project. “The greatest need we see in Orange County is for large-family housing,” she said.

Barry said he would look into it but said the constraints of the project would make it difficult to provide anything but three-bedroom units with only one bathroom, which he said he did not see as feasible.

The city and the developers have allocated as much as $4,000 in relocation assistance per household, city officials said. A relocation assistance firm has been hired to handle that aspect of the project and has already conducted surveys of about 320 households, roughly 80% of which were occupied by undocumented residents.