City Doing Its Best on Haster Gardens

* Thomas M. Simon’s April 11 letter regarding the Haster Gardens housing complex in Garden Grove [contained] some errors and misperceptions.

Simon is mistaken in his belief that the city is not doing anything about the situation at Haster Gardens. In fact, the city is doing everything within its legal authority to ensure that the situation is resolved.

The city’s actions include the inspection of all 148 housing units and the tagging of unsafe units. Thirty-five unsafe units have been identified, 25 of which were vacant at the time of inspection.

The city has made a concerted effort to get eligible residents on federal Section 8 housing assistance to facilitate the move to different housing. It has offered to work with tenants not eligible for such assistance through contacting other apartment owners.

Also, the city has gained the cooperation of all utility suppliers to continue to provide service to the troubled complex, even though their bills are not currently being paid.

Despite Simon’s claims that his company “put the mayor and the city on notice” this month that the tenants want action, action to resolve the problems of Haster Gardens was initiated in January.

That’s when the city filed a lawsuit against the owners, their lenders, and the management of the complex to force them to bring the complex within acceptable standards.

In addition, in light of the problems created by the ever-shifting ownership and management of the complex and the units within it, the city went to court April 13 to have a receiver appointed to take over management and control of the daily operations of the complex.

The court granted the city’s request and appointed a receiver for the property. As far as we can determine, this is the first time ever in California that the courts have granted a public agency’s request to appoint a receiver for private property.

BRUCE A. BROADWATER

Mayor

Garden Grove