Stanton Mobile Home Park Residents Seek Rent Control

More than 100 angry residents of the city’s mobile home parks attended the City Council meeting this week to demand rent control. Many said they are on fixed incomes and are in danger of losing their homes.

There are about 1,200 mobile homes in the city at 10 mobile home parks, planning manager Mark D. Lloyd said. Voters narrowly rejected a ballot attempt in 1984 to establish rent control at city mobile home parks.

Residents of the Katella Mobile Home Park, the city’s largest, led the protest at the council meeting. They said their rents were improperly raised.

City Atty. Thomas W. Allen told the council the rent issue was a private-property matter over which the city has no jurisdiction.

But Mayor Sal Sapien said he is concerned about the dispute and asked both parties to work together to resolve it.

In a letter to the council, Katella park resident Ginger Jordan said she knew of a family whose rent was raised without the required 60 days’ notice. She also said another family moved in and then found the monthly rent was $50 higher than what they had been told.

After presenting her charges to the council, Jordan received loud applause.

Park manager Marsha Carter, who attended the meeting, said afterward that new residents are not required to be given 60 days’ notice. She also said she wished that Jordan and other park residents had contacted her before bringing their complaints to the city.

“I would have met with them anyway,” Carter said. “They never asked me.”

She said rent increases were 4% in 1993 and 3% in 1992 and have typically been kept close to cost-of-living increases.

Carter pledged to meet with Jordan and other residents. Jordan, at Sapien’s request, stood up at the meeting and agreed to talk with Carter about the problems.