Residents Group Seeks State Aid to Buy Their Mobile Home Park

In an effort to purchase a low- to moderate-income trailer park from owner Richard Hall, the homeowners association plans to apply for a state-funded loan so residents can come closer to Hall’s $8-million asking price.

Since Hall rejected the Seal Beach Trailer Park Residents Assn.’s $6.4-million bid in June, the homeowners have been working with the city’s redevelopment agency to come up with another way to get ownership of the park.

At the redevelopment agency’s meeting Monday evening, the trailer association was granted $7,000 toward the legal costs of applying for a loan from the state’s Housing and Community Development Department. The loan could be for as much as $1 million and would come from the state’s Mobilehome Park Resident Ownership Program.

The program helps mobile home owners in lower-income parks who are working with nonprofit resident management groups to buy the park’s property.

Plans to apply for the loan went ahead after LINC, a nonprofit housing development corporation that is helping the park residents, received a letter of intent this week from Hall stating that he wanted to sell the park.

A new asking price for the park was also submitted, but a LINC spokesman would not disclose the amount.

However, LINC’s Hunter Johnson said he is optimistic that sale negotiations between his company and Hall are a sign that a lawsuit by the park owner against the city will be dropped.

“The point is to preserve the park” as a low- and moderate-income housing area, Johnson said.

Hall sued city officials on July 3, 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 tactics by residents that he characterized as unscrupulous.

But residents say 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.

Hall has denied the allegation.

Residents say the park truly provides affordable housing, especially compared with the $700,000 homes nearby.

The 70-year-old, seven-acre park is home to many longtime residents living in structures that are mobile in name only. Owners have used manufactured and modular pieces to transform old trailer home frames into permanent-looking structures, some two stories tall. But other homes show obvious signs of age and disrepair.

Residents are looking forward to being able to own the park outright.

“We’ve been working on this for 1 1/2 years, and we’re happy as long as we can keep our [space] rents affordable,” resident Glenn Clark said.

Alex Murashko can be reached at (714) 966-5974.