High O.C. Costs Mean Crowding

In a county increasingly divided between rich and poor, Margarita Esquivel finds herself decidedly among the have-nots in a Stanton apartment complex that caters to working-class immigrants.

There is one bedroom, which holds a bunk bed for Esquivel’s daughters, 6 and 4, and a cradle for her 6-month-old son. Another bed is reserved for nights when Esquivel must snuggle the baby to sleep, and for naps for a neighbor child she watches during the day.

Esquivel sleeps with her husband on a foldout sofa in the living room, which also serves as kitchen, dining room and play area. Car seats, a stroller, crayons and toys are scattered on the floor among bags of empty aluminum cans the family recycles for extra cash. A basket of mangos sits on a dining table with seating for three.

Five people in two rooms for $800 a month, paid with wages Esquivel’s husband earns as a helper at a construction site.

“Rent is too high,” she says. “This is the way we have to live.”

Increasingly, it is the way Orange County lives.

New data from the 2000 census shows that large areas of Orange County’s older core cities are becoming crowded with low-wage, poorly educated families seeking an economic toehold in a region notorious for its high cost of living.

And the congestion is spreading beyond the traditional landing spots for immigrants, such as Santa Ana.

Although Santa Ana remained Orange County’s most crowded city in the ‘90s, with more than one-third of the city’s housing units holding at least 1.51 people per room, Stanton saw one of the biggest increases in crowding, with the number of homes holding 1.51 people per room doubling to 20.5%--second only to Santa Ana.

That ratio means one in five two-bedroom homes in Stanton with a living room and a kitchen would be home to at least six people.

The problem is more than a statistical matter for Fernando and Miranda Becerra, who rent out their living room in their one-bedroom, $850-a-month Stanton apartment to strangers. The young couple shepherd their two children into the bedroom at night while two men sleep on mattresses on the living room floor.

“Almost everyone here has more people in their apartments because they can’t pay their rent otherwise,” Miranda said.

Mayra Meade, 35, manager at the Becerra’s apartment complex, said the practice is common.

“They always tell me that they have guests, but those guests stay there for months,” she said, adding that she allows the stacking up as long as the apartments are kept up and the rent paid.

That is not easy.

Luis Garcia, 32, earns the minimum wage of $6.74 an hour--about $1,000 a month--at a 99-cent store. His wife, Maria Garcia, 28, makes about $1,300 a month at a Walgreens. Their $800 rent is about a third of their monthly income.

The Garcias have five young children who sleep together in a king-sized bed in the apartment’s only bedroom. Garcia and his wife use a sleeper in the living room.

This is not what Garcia envisioned for himself when he came from Mexico 14 years ago, hoping for a better life. He saw himself owning a comfortable home for his wife and children.

To that end, Garcia has been trying to build his credit and his savings. But the home looms as a sort of mountain he can see but not reach. Still, it is a dream delayed, not dead. “I will do it,” he vowed.

For now, the family makes do and tries to save what it can.

“It’s hard,” Garcia said. “Because minimum wage is not enough to live decently.”