Owners to Pay $250,000 to Former Tenants of Mobile Home Park : Settlement: A dozen onetime residents claim in a lawsuit that the premises were allowed to deteriorate while the landlords awaited the city’s OK to convert the Van Nuys site into an industrial park.

The owners of a former Van Nuys mobile home park have agreed to pay $250,000 to tenants who claimed that the landlords allowed conditions to deteriorate while waiting to convert the property into an industrial park, permitting weeds to grow six feet high and letting 100 feral cats roam the park.

“This case is important because the courts are saying that it’s vital that people be treated like human beings,” Ron Rouda, attorney for the plaintiffs, said.

Each of the 12 former tenants who filed a joint lawsuit last year will receive about $15,000 after expenses and attorney’s fees under a settlement approved in Van Nuys Superior Court last week. The former tenants also received up to $30,000 each in relocation costs, rent subsidies for a year and reimbursement for their mobile homes under a separate agreement two years ago.

“I’d give it all back if I could just have my old home spot back,” said Ray Gunter, 49, an administrator for the Department of Defense and one of the plaintiffs.

The Young Haven Mobile Home Park, where Gunter and the other plaintiffs lived, was in the 7600 block of Hayvenhurst Avenue. Four men--David A. Parker, Leon Anguire, Reese Milner II and Harry Hathaway--bought the property and sought to close the park, beginning in 1986.

Many tenants of the 42-space park moved out that year, but 10 trailers remained occupied while the city held hearings to determine whether the park should be allowed to close. The city eventually agreed to let the owners convert the park into an industrial complex, provided they paid relocation and other expenses of the tenants.

The suit filed by the tenants contends that while the matter was under consideration by city officials, the owners allowed conditions to deteriorate.

About 100 cats roamed the premises, and fires started in untended trailers, Rouda said.

“We had weeds up to our necks, people coming in campers and tents and partying all night,” Gunter said. “I don’t know if the owners were trying to get the Health Department to condemn it or not.”

“If we had it to do over, we wouldn’t have bought it,” Parker said. “When we bought it, the city told us it would be no problem to close it, but it took four years. It cost us $10,000 a month to operate in the meantime. We couldn’t afford a full-time gardener” to cut the weeds, he said.

Under the settlement, the owners admit no culpability, their attorney, Daniel Brzovic, said.