Rent Increases Threaten to Oust Arcadia Mobile Home Tenants

Audrey Galvin dreads the thought of having to move in with her daughter’s family near San Diego, which she may have to do if rent at the Mobile Manor mobile home park goes up again.

“They don’t have the room,” Galvin, 82, said. “I would have to sleep on the couch.”

For Galvin and some other residents of Mobile Manor, at 4241 E. Live Oak, a 14% rent increase imposed last July is already stretching their budgets to the limits. Galvin’s monthly Social Security check totals $473 of which $200 goes to pay the rent for her 35-by-8-foot space at the park.

“I have to get into savings,” said Galvin, a widow and 22-year park resident.

Lobbying County

A similar dilemma faces many of the 200 other park residents, said Joan Stoner, president of the Mobile Manor Homeowners Assn. She is lobbying county officials to curb rent increases and enforce an ordinance requiring park owners to offer leases.

Although park residents have an Arcadia mailing address, the park is located on an unincorporated portion of Los Angeles County.

Mobile Manor is one of a half-dozen mobile home parks with mailing addresses in Arcadia, a city whose motto is “Community of Homes.” So, less than a mile from half-million dollar homes, there are enclaves of mobile homes, many inhabited by elderly residents living on as little as $6,000 a year, Stoner said.

But park manager Clara Pierson said the homeowners group is exaggerating and that many residents resent Stoner’s description that most of the park residents are nearly destitute.

14% Increase

Pierson said Dr. Fong-Fu Chang, owner of the park, raised rent by 14% last year in order to cover increased expenses such as taxes and maintenance. “I try to keep the rent to below what the market is charging,” Chang said.

Stoner said county officials have been slow to enforce a 1988 ordinance targeted at mobile home parks that have failed to offer tenants long-term leases, as required by a 1986 ordinance.

The 1986 lease requirement was designed to phase out rent controls the county had imposed in 1979, said Gregg Kawczynski, administrator of the county’s Mobile Home Rent Stabilization Program.

But Stoner said park residents have been waiting in vain for a lease since early last year.

Lease Proposed

Chang said he has proposed a lease that his attorney and county officials are reviewing and anticipates that it will be approved between May 1 and May 15.

Pierson said the county should have acted sooner.

Chang said he does not blame the delays on county staff members, noting that the rent stabilization program only has one or two employees to review leases. However, he faulted the board of supervisors for shortsightedness.

“They decided to change the law but did not provide enough personnel to get the job done.”

Kawczynski said similar delays have plagued at least 18 of the 90 mobile home parks in the county that are subject to the ordinance.

There are 129 mobile home parks in the county, but only those with two or more rental spaces are subject to the ordinance, he said. Parks serving mainly recreational trailers also do not fall under the ordinance, he said.

Office Understaffed

“I certainly can understand the residents’ frustrations,” Kawczynski said. He attributed the delays to an understaffed office. Since the Mobilehome Park Rent Adjustment Commission was established in 1988 to enforce the lease requirement, Kawczynski said he has had only one part-time intern to help him review leases submitted by park owners.

He said the proposed addition of a paralegal to his staff should help speed up the review process.

Last week, Stoner and Irving Kasow, vice president of the Mobile Manor Homeowners Assn., attended a meeting with county officials but left more disillusioned than ever.

They had hoped the meeting would result in a lease for Mobile Manor residents. If not, they had hoped the county would enforce its 1988 mandatory rent control ordinance, which establishes fines for parks that fail to offer the required lease.

Under the ordinance, parks that do not offer a lease are prohibited from increasing rent by more than 75% of the consumer price index.

New Increase Expected

But last week, the rent stabilization commission delayed action on Mobile Manor until May 17.

“When is something going to happen?” asked Stoner, who said the commission may continue postponements and fail to act before July, when park residents expect another rent increase.

Stoner said she and her husband, an electrician at Santa Anita race track, have a comfortable income and are not as desperate as some of their neighbors. But she said she is worried for her elderly neighbors because many of them are depressed by the possibility of becoming homeless.

Jewell Phipps, for example, said another big rent increase may force her to give up her trailer home. She said having to turn to her sons for help would rob her of her independence and create a burden for her children.

“I don’t believe in mothers imposing on their children,” said Phipps, 67.

“I wouldn’t live with any of my sons,” she said, adding after a pause, “I don’t get along with my daughters-in-law.”

Said Kasow: “We feel we are little Davids fighting Goliath.”