Evicted Tenant, 72, May Get to Sell His Mobile Home

Even though he was evicted from a mobile home park after a long-standing tenant-landlord dispute, senior citizen Bill Dickey could get to sell his double-wide coach after all, under an agreement drafted late Friday.

Dickey, 72, still must endorse the agreement, but it appears to cover everything he asked for at a protest rally Thursday, the last day he had to sell his home of 22 years before park owners could legally lock him out.

A resident who has championed Dickey’s cause said she was cheered by the proposal forwarded by the Thunderbird Oaks Mobile Home Park. But she vowed to study its fine print.

“All we were looking for was to bring this to an end and allow Mr. Dickey to sell his home and get out of it, so he wasn’t left both homeless and penniless,” resident Chris Buckett said.

An attorney for the mobile home park said the agreement came despite Thursday’s protest and Councilwoman Elois Zeanah’s “self-serving statements and political grandstanding.”

“My clients have reconsidered and decided that compromise, cooperation and working with the city is to their advantage,” Cerritos lawyer Larry W. Weaver said.

Because Dickey, a park resident for 22 years, lives in his recreational vehicle and is without a phone, he could not be reached for comment Friday. The agreement does contain a condition requiring Dickey to waive his rights to sue the park owners.

Through a rather convoluted set of circumstances dating back about a decade, Dickey and his landlords butted heads over everything from the use of the 161-unit mobile home park’s clubhouse to the upkeep of Dickey’s then overgrown yard and ramshackle porch.

After state regulators cited Dickey for health and safety code violations four times over six months in 1996, Thunderbird Oaks took the ruddy-faced Dickey to court.

Eventually, both parties signed a settlement that gave Dickey until Thursday to clean the place up, meet all state codes and find a suitable buyer. Dickey now says he was coerced into signing the settlement.

If he had the money, Dickey could have moved the carpeted coach to another park at any time.

While most of the home’s cleanup was performed Thursday by residents who flocked to Dickey’s cause, not all the repairs were completed. And park owners were balking because the people who want to buy Dickey’s coach for $40,000 are not yet 55, the minimum age for park residency. Park owners have veto power over any sale, and they appeared poised to exercise it until Friday.

The reasons for Dickey’s predicament depend on who’s talking.

Some residents saw Dickey as a hapless victim being booted out of his home for vengeance. Others see him as an irascible and stubborn man who resented park rules and flouted them, even when it hurt his best interests, until he was kicked out.

Under the agreement proposed Thursday, final repairs would have to be made to Dickey’s home before the new tenants could move in. Also, the new couple could not close escrow until the husband’s 55th birthday in June.

Despite the digs aimed at her, Zeanah said her main concern was always Dickey’s well-being.

“This sale is a lifeline, that’s what this is,” Zeanah said. “Without the efforts of concerned citizens who forced the hand of park owners to accept . . . the sale offer, this senior citizen would have been left without a home and without a penny for 22 years of investment.”