Settlement Is News at Mobile Home Park

Many residents at Plaza Mobile Estates on Tuesday were shocked to find out that their mobile home park was part of the largest federal case stemming from housing discrimination against families with children.

The park has been open to children for years.

“There are many children on this block,” said 96-year-old Georgia Costello, a former schoolteacher who moved into the park 10 years ago. “I just sent three of them home so I can take a nap. There are times when I’d prefer a little quiet, but having the kids around here is very nice.”

But apparently that was not always the case at Plaza Mobile Estates. The owners of the Fairview Street park and five others in California agreed Monday to pay more than $2 million to settle a lawsuit brought by the Justice Department and civil-rights lawyers. The owners denied the allegations.

The case was filed seven years ago when Plaza Mobile was under different management. A Santa Ana couple with a toddler alleged that when they inquired about rates and rules at the park, they were rebuffed by management and told the park did not have adequate facilities for children.

Since the 1970s, California law has prohibited discrimination against families with children. But there was an exemption for mobile home parks, which developed mostly as low-cost housing for seniors.

The parks lost their special status in 1988 because of a federal law protecting families with children from discrimination in any housing facility.

Plaza Mobile Estates manager Linda Schamel, who has been in charge for the past six months, said Tuesday there are now children in at least 35% of the park’s 225 units. She said children have been permitted for several years but neither she nor the management company could specify when they were first allowed in.

“It was pretty well settled before the lawsuit was settled,” Schamel said. “I think people have adjusted.”

Some of the young families said renting or buying a mobile home is a nice alternative to living in an apartment, and cheaper than purchasing a house.

Still, there are residents who don’t like having kids around.

“The children run around in the street and you’re afraid you’re going to hit them,” said seven-year resident Joe Pharney, 65. “Last year a 9-year-old boy just ran naked right past our front door. My main concern is the safety of the kids and the kids running around unsupervised.”

A 78-year-old resident, who asked not to be identified, called children in the park “a nuisance.”

“I have children of my own so I know kids have to exist,” said the man, who has lived at the park for eight years. “But, I would prefer that things go back to the way they were before.”

But Eddie Rodriguez, 25, who paid $12,000 in cash for his mobile home a year ago, said the park has greatly improved the quality of life for him, his wife and two young daughters.

“We lived in an apartment in Westminster and one night three bullets came through our wall,” he said. “That’s when I decided to move here. Here, we don’t have to duck bullets, and the kids are safe.”

Another resident, Raul Perez, 25, agreed.

“This is a very nice place,” said Perez, who moved in last year and has a 2-year-old son. “People don’t really complain about the kids. Still, I don’t know if they like it.”