Big Rent Feud Settles In at Trailer Park

The new owner of a low- and moderate-income trailer park in Seal Beach has sued city officials, saying people seeking affordable housing are in effect excluded from the park because of $60,000 “key fees,” “scalping” of trailers for as much as $130,000, and other unscrupulous tactics by longtime residents.

But residents say park owner Richard Hall just wants to kick them out so he can raze the park and turn it into a resort as he did with the Treasure Island trailer park in Laguna Beach. They say the park truly provides affordable housing, especially compared with the $700,000 homes nearby.

“I don’t think a home in Seal Beach for around $120,000 should be considered exorbitant,” said Frank Boychuck, a longtime occupant who heads the Seal Beach Trailer Park Owners Assn. Boychuck said that although some trailer homeowners sublease spaces, they are charging renters just enough to cover the expense of their mortgages and the space rental.

Councilman Paul Yost said the city will “fight vigorously” against the lawsuit filed July 3 against the redevelopment agency. Yost, who heads the agency, said its staff examines yearly audits of residents to ensure that they qualify for lower rents. But he also said those who originally qualified who now may have increased income should not be asked to leave.

“We shouldn’t chop their feet out from under them” after they became financially stable, he said.

“To me, it’s not just a trailer park,” Yost said. “It’s one of those unique places that gives Seal Beach its charm.”

The 70-year-old, seven-acre park, at the mouth of the San Gabriel River, is home to elderly people, families with children, and others. Tenants at the north and northwest ends of the park enjoy spectacular sunsets and views of the Alamitos Bay Yacht Club and marina across the river in Long Beach. On clear days, Santa Catalina Island looks close enough to touch.

Many of the homes are mobile in name only. Owners have done an ingenious job of using manufactured and modular pieces to transform old trailer home frames into permanent-looking structures, some two stories tall. But other homes show obvious sign of age and disrepair.

The lawsuit charges that a “covenant” between the agency and the park’s original owner decreeing that 120 of 126 trailer spaces be rented at affordable prices is not valid. Hall says numerous residents no longer qualify for the subsidized rent.

In a written statement to The Times, Hall said the current average monthly rent at the park, two blocks from the beach, is $304, whereas the average rent in Orange County for affordable mobile home parks is $568.

“The city has turned a blind eye toward [a] park that is rampant with abuses,” said Hall’s attorney, Charles Black.

Black said he and his client hope to have a court order the city to enforce the covenant or have it invalidated. With an enforced covenant, he said, Hall would be entitled to evict ineligible residents and charge “moderate, appropriate rent increases.” Without the covenant, he could set rents as he chooses, but the city could impose rent control.

City Atty. Quinn Barrow said the city is not responsible for seeing that tenants qualify for lower rents.

Barrow also said that, under the covenant, the current residents needed to qualify for lower rents only when they applied for their spaces.

“Once they’ve qualified, they’re in,” Barrow said. “They don’t get kicked out. . . . The real issue is if [Hall’s attorney] is able to convince the judge that people need to qualify every year.”

Suspicions of an Ulterior Motive

Yost and residents accuse Hall of wanting to force the trailer homeowners out of the park to build a resort. Some point to his partnership in the resort and luxury-home project at the former Treasure Island mobile home park. Residents were forced out there after years of bitter disputes involving relocation benefits and withheld rents.

Elderly residents said they are frightened by the prospect of losing their homes if Hall prevails in his lawsuit and is allowed to raise rents. “We know very well what happened to the folks who lived at the Laguna Beach trailer park that Hall bought,” said an elderly woman who has lived at the park since it opened. “That’s everybody’s worst fear, that he’ll win and turn this into a resort. Then none of us can afford to live here.”

Hall, who owns several trailer parks, denies that’s his aim.

In a written statement, he said:

“I bought the [Seal Beach] park because it was undervalued and presented an opportunity to own a coastal mobile home park. Treasure Island was 28 acres on a bluff in Laguna Beach with a private beach. Trying to compare the two isn’t realistic. . . . I don’t intend to close the park.”

Park residents have been battling Hall over proposed rent increases for more than a year. In January, the redevelopment agency denied Hall’s request to raise space rents by 36%, instead granting a 7.8% increase. Saying the limited hike did not cover his costs, Hall proposed a graduated rent scale, which was also denied.

In an effort to end the battle and hang onto their homes, members of the residents association and the nonprofit housing development corporation LINC are trying to purchase the park. Hall declined an offer of $6.4 million in June, saying he wanted $8 million.

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Times staff writer H.G. Reza contributed to this report.

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Trailer Park Blues

A trailer park owner says his tenants are improperly subleasing their trailer spaces for high rents. He is suing the city’s redevelopment agency for what he says is an invalid agreement requiring him to lease space to low- or moderate-income families at unreasonable prices.