Crackdown on Motels Spreading

An Anaheim motel owner has filed a federal lawsuit challenging city restrictions on the length of stays at motels, often the housing of last resort for the poor. But even as that lawsuit and similar claims in such cities as Rosemead and Oakland churn through the court system, other cities are acting to keep people from using a motel as a home.

The cities are adopting ordinances that require tenants to pay extra city taxes and move every 30 days. Other times, they simply reject permit requests. This week, Santa Ana joined such cities as Costa Mesa, Stanton and Garden Grove by passing an ordinance that allows tenants to stay no more than 28 or 30 days.

On top of the extra restrictions, motel owners say, they are subject to overly aggressive enforcement by police and code enforcement officials.

“We think there is a systematic policy throughout the state now . . . that they’re going to overregulate these properties and really close them down or at least get a percentage of them,” said Los Angeles attorney Frank Weiser, who has filed a spate of lawsuits on behalf of motel owners across California in recent years. “They don’t want to have motels that are catering to long-term tenancy.”

The latest lawsuit is targeted at Anaheim, which does not have a blanket ordinance limiting hotel stays, but requires a conditional use permit. That permit can place certain restrictions on the motels, including the rule that tenants stay no more than 30 days during a 90-day period.

Covered Wagon Motel owner Gregory Parkin, who also is a Fullerton attorney, said the city is applying the restrictions unfairly and spottily.

When the city started enforcing the rules and told him that he had to kick out long-term tenants, Parkin decided to sue.

“We don’t feel we should have to do that,” he said. “A lot of these people are the working poor. It’s disastrous for them.”

One of his tenants, Raul Cisneros, 27, said he has been unable to find an apartment because he has one eviction on his record. The warehouseman, who makes at most $8 an hour, lives at the motel with his wife and 5-year-old daughter.

“What does it matter to the city?” he said. “We’re the ones that are in this situation. It’s not right. You’ve got people like us, trying to make a living. I don’t plan to be here my whole life.”

It is a common story among residents of aging motels, many of which are located in the area near Disneyland, and in other older pockets throughout the region. Once tourist draws, these motels now house more long-term residents than travelers looking for a room for a couple nights.

Jill Horvath, 33, moves from motel to motel in Anaheim with her two daughters, ages 13 and 9. She works at a sandpaper company making $7 an hour and lives out of a suitcase, paying $220 a week to stay at the Rainbow Inn.

She could probably afford an apartment if they looked past her terrible credit, but what about the cash for the first and last month’s rent, and the money to pay for utilities?

“If I didn’t have a motel, then I wouldn’t have anywhere else to go,” Horvath said. “It’s what I have to do.”

She has no permanent mailing address, no permanent telephone number. And each time she moves, she fears that her daughters might have to switch schools.

But Anaheim City Atty. Jack White said city officials are simply trying to ensure that tenants have decent housing and crack down on prostitution and drug dealers that sometimes infest motels with long-term tenants.

“We’re picking on problems, we’re not picking on people,” White said. “Not every hotel in the city has problems that the Covered Wagon has had historically and perpetually--problems with the lack of play area for small children, crime problems, the disconnection of smoke detectors, things like that.”

Although White said Anaheim is a leader in providing low-cost housing in Orange County, state requirements call for the city to construct 2,710 more very low-income units by 2005. Since 1998, only 54 of those units have been built.

“We have a severe shortage of housing,” said Joe Caux of the Orange County Fair Housing Council. “This is a bad living environment for these people, but it is serving a need. These motels have always served a clientele that is at the margins of shelter.”

Despite the need statewide for more low-income housing, Weiser said, he has noticed a move by many cities to impose more restrictions. He has filed more than 20 lawsuits statewide against them.

Weiser contends that cities with restrictions on motel stays are violating the Fair Housing Act by discriminating against hotels that cater to the poor and minorities. He typically contends that police and code enforcement officials harass residents and motel owners.

In Anaheim’s case, he says the pricier hotels in town are not subject to the more restrictive permits.

In Rosemead, Weiser has a federal case against the city pending on behalf of numerous motel owners challenging the idea that the city can regulate the motels by requiring special permits for stays of more than 30 days.

In Oakland, Weiser filed a lawsuit on behalf of dozens of Indian and Asian motel owners challenging aggressive code enforcement that he believes targets low-income motels.

Other cities targeted in his lawsuits are Buena Park, Fresno, Gilroy and San Bernardino.

Although a growing number of cities are adopting such ordinances, others are treading carefully. In Camarillo, the city passed an ordinance in 1998 limiting hotel stays--but extended that time period to 180 days in a one-year period. And in Banning last year, officials tabled plans to adopt an ordinance because there were too many legal questions, the city attorney said.