Displaced Lives : Ex-Residents of Closed Mobile Home Park Wage Legal Battle Against Owners, Anaheim

When he looks out from his back porch at Orange Tree Mobile Home Estates, all 49-year-old Kenny Youngblood sees are chin-high weeds and hundreds of empty spaces where his neighbors used to live.

“It’s obviously lonely,” said Youngblood, the sole remaining resident of the once-bustling mobile home park next to The Pond at Anaheim. “I like living here, and I have no desire to move. I’m not going to just because the owners are telling me to.”

Youngblood and his former neighbors, contending they were illegally run out of the 219-space park by its owner, filed a class-action lawsuit this week against the city of Anaheim in Orange County Superior Court.

The former residents, led by their homeowners association, say that the City Council should not have permitted the park’s closure in May and are asking the court to reverse the decision. The suit also seeks more than $2 million in relocation benefits for the residents on the grounds that almost all of them had already moved out of the 25-acre park before the council’s May 16 action, which provided such benefits for anyone remaining.

“By the time this thing got to the City Council, there were only two people left in the park,” said Kurt Delsack, an attorney representing the residents. “A lot of people had to give up their homes, and several went bankrupt. There are all kinds of horror stories that came out of this.”

Anaheim officials said this week that they acted legally in approving the park’s closure, merely following the recommendation of a retired judge who acted as an impartial arbitrator.

“I’m confident that the council’s decision was done properly, and I believe that the court will affirm that action,” said City Atty. Jack L. White.

The retired judge, John L. Flynn Jr., approved a “conversion impact report” last August filed by the park owner. The report detailed the number of tenants who would be displaced by the park’s closure.

“It’s terrible and awful that it had to close, but all laws were followed,” said Councilman Bob Zemel.

Park owner Jack Stanaland and landowner Clayton E. Scarborough are the targets of a separate lawsuit filed by residents in April, which also seeks more than $2 million in relocation benefits, or $10,000 for each tenant.

That suit alleges that the residents were illegally driven from the park. It is still pending.

Stanaland, who had offered each resident $5,000 worth of free rent to help with relocation costs, said Friday that the lawsuits are a “nuisance” and the work of a few disgruntled former residents.

“They are trying to speak on behalf of everyone,” he said. “The people who tried to help themselves and took our offer didn’t have problems. What we have here is a small group of greedy people. It costs a little less than $5,000 to move a coach, and there is a certain group who wanted more.”

Stanaland said that rising vacancy rates, traffic problems and the park’s deteriorating condition were among the reasons he wanted to close the park. He would not say Friday what his plans for the property are.

In court documents, attorneys for Stanaland wrote that the lawsuit against their client is “frivolous at best and totally without factual support.”

But Delsack contends that the council’s approval of the park’s closure was based in large part on the fact that it was almost completely vacant after the owners illegally drove people away.

“The [defendants] cast themselves as victims, saying, ‘We can’t make a living out of this park anymore,’ ” he said.

Delsack alleges that the park owner violated state law by announcing the park’s closure in early 1993 without governmental approval and that he has begun to illegally use the land for parking for events at The Pond.

The owners “claim that they simply needed to give 12 months of notice, but it seems clear to us that they would first need to get local approval, and only then could they give a six-month notice,” Delsack said.

Stanaland denies that the land has been used for parking and said that all legal procedures were followed.

“We were straightforward that the business wasn’t viable anymore and that we intended to close the park,” he said. “We gave more than 12 months’ notice. Part of the complaint seems to be that we gave them more notice than required.”

Meta Teegarden, 93, said that the park’s closure caused her tremendous hardship. Teegarden, who had lived in the park for more than 25 years, did not accept the relocation offer made by management.

“That was a terrible shock,” she said of the park’s closure. “I was one of the first ones there. I got so upset and had to give up my home and lots of belongings from my childhood.”

Teegarden said that without an adequate relocation allowance, she was forced to sell her coach for $6,000, nearly $20,000 less than she paid for it when she moved to the park. Worse still, she said, was giving away many of her most beloved possessions, including china from her 1925 wedding, as she moved into a one-bedroom apartment in public housing.

“They told us we had to vacate within a year,” Teegarden said. “That was the hardest part. I lost a lot of money. I was afraid. I had no protection.”

Park owners, who announced the closure March 30, 1993, according to court documents, had originally offered to waive $5,000 in rent to tenants if they left the park by Oct. 15, 1994. Ninety-two tenants signed the agreement, and 75 did not. About 50 tenants had already left the park before the agreement was offered.

The council’s unanimous action in May provided for an average of $2,803 in relocation costs for remaining residents. But the residents’ attorneys said the cost of moving a mobile home is actually $8,000 to $12,000, depending on the size of the coach.

Edward Leion, 55, former president of the park’s homeowners association who has led the battle against the park’s closure, said that he is seeking justice for residents.

“I have heard story after story of bankruptcies and medical conditions, one after another of people having to give up their things. It’s heartbreaking,” said Leion, who declared personal bankruptcy shortly after moving from the park. “If there is any reason I have hung onto this, it is because people’s lives have been literally destroyed by this.”