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Mobile Homes Squeezed Out by Developers

Times Staff Writer

Martha McKay had thought she would live out her days at the Desert Gardens Mobile Home Park.

But this month, McKay, a resident of Desert Gardens for 17 years, learned her mobile home park in Canyon Country is closing down, a victim of spreading development and rising property values. She and 91 neighbors have a year to get out.

“I’m 83 years old, and I don’t want to move,” McKay said. “I can’t even think of how to pack my stuff.”

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Park owners and mobile home residents statewide say the sad situation of McKay mirrors a recurring problem in California. As outlying regions become urbanized, more trailer parks are falling victim to ever-spreading development that encroaches on rural communities.

There are no plans on the horizon to shut down any of the other 34 mobile home parks in the Santa Clarita Valley, but that does not stop residents from fearing the worst. They point out that the same growth patterns exist there and in nearby developing areas--including Ventura County--as in other regions nationwide that have experienced a high number of park closures.

45-Day Moratorium

To quell the movement, tenants at 10 Santa Clarita Valley mobile home parks formed an organization three months ago in hopes of preventing further shutdowns. The Santa Clarita City Council showed its support on July 14, the day after the announcement of Desert Gardens’ demise, by imposing a 45-day moratorium on mobile home park closures so the young city could assess how to protect the parks.

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The end of Desert Gardens means the start of uneasy times for the city’s 2,200 mobile home park residents, said Don Wilder, chairman of the new Santa Clarita Valley Mobile Home Council. “It’s definitely shaking people up,” he said.

The roots of the problem stretch back to the 1960s and ‘70s, when hundreds of mobile home parks were built throughout California on cheap, semi-rural land. “They were out in the boondocks,” said Mural Torrance, a longtime mobile home activist in Ojai.

In 1960, there were 3,961 mobile home parks in California with 148,662 spaces, according to the state Department of Housing and Community Development. Twenty years later, the state had 5,850 parks and the number of spaces had more than doubled to 414,981.

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What many mobile home residents did not realize was that most parks were never meant to be permanent, said Marie Malone, president of the Golden State Mobilehome Owners League, a statewide park residents group that claims 165,000 members. Most were built with temporary permits.

Residents, however, viewed the trailer parks as lasting homes. Many, McKay among them, planted gardens and settled in to enjoy their retirement.

But by the 1980s, cities had grown up around some parks and land values had risen. Park owners, wanting to cash in on the growth, began closing them to build housing tracts, apartments or shopping centers. Such is the case at Desert Gardens.

Economic Eviction

Today, Malone said, thousands of the state’s 850,000 trailer park residents are facing what she calls “economic eviction.”

Others are not so certain the picture is as bleak as Malone describes. Frank Ford, local government director for the Western Mobilehome Assn., a 2,400-member park owners group, did not think the problem was so severe. But Ford agreed that park closures are “beginning to come to the forefront of many local agendas.”

Between 1985 and this year, state figures show, the number of spaces in trailer parks in California declined from 432,066 to 373,378--a 13.5% drop of 58,688 spaces. Exact figures on shutdowns of parks themselves were unavailable.

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To stave off the threat of closures, some mobile home residents have begun buying the parks from landowners in recent years.

Malone said the big push began in 1980, after the Golden State Mobilehome Owners League worked with state officials and banks to develop loan programs for park residents. Today, California has about 100 resident-owned parks, most operated as nonprofit cooperatives, she said.

In Agoura, for example, 215 residents chipped in two years ago to purchase the Seminole Springs Mobile Home Park for $4 million.

Meanwhile, builders are erecting mobile home parks in California at a slower rate than before, said Julie Stewart, a spokeswoman for the Department of Housing and Community Development.

Few mobile home parks, in fact, have been built since 1980. Between 1970 and 1980, for instance, the number of park spaces increased by about 185,000. Comparatively, only 17,000 spaces were constructed between 1980 and 1984.

Older Models Rejected

Even as more spaces become available, however, many remain inaccessible to fixed-income residents because newer parks generally charge higher rents and refuse to accept older coaches, which they say clash stylistically with newer units.

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The longtime resident of a park that is facing closure, then, has few options. Many are forced out of state, Malone said. “We have no place for these homes to go.”

For many, it is a simple matter of affordability. Consider McKay’s case.

McKay, who has lived at Desert Gardens since her husband, Ralph, died 17 years ago, makes do on a $595 monthly Social Security check. She pays $277 of that in rent. Her two-bedroom coach is 17 years old, so most parks will not accept it.

The owners of the trailer park, required by state law to help residents move, found a possible site for McKay in Lancaster. She vetoed the idea. “I didn’t want to go. It’s too far from my shopping and too far from my friends.”

For the moment, McKay is still looking. So are Ethel Turner, 89, and Lee Morris, 71, two of McKay’s neighbors. Like her, they are widows on limited incomes. And they live in coaches more than 20 years old. “I don’t know what I’m going to do,” Turner said. “I’m helpless, I have arthritis. I don’t know what to do.”

Help With Move

Mark J. Forbes is the man charged with helping Turner, Morris and McKay find new homes, and he admits it is not an easy task. Forbes is a vice president of Jovet Inc., a Beverly Hills firm developing Desert Gardens for Towne Square Ltd., which purchased the 60-space park on Soledad Canyon Road in May. Forbes declined to reveal the sale price, but property records show the land was assessed at $1.2 million.

State law says the company must not only help residents find new homes, but also must pay “reasonable costs” incurred in the move. So far, Forbes said, one resident has moved out, and about 10 others are close to completing arrangements for housing. Some are moving to other parks, some to rest homes, a few are purchasing land for their coaches to ensure they never will be uprooted again.

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The search for new housing is hampered by a lack of spaces, Forbes said. State figures show Los Angeles County has about one-third of the state’s mobile home park population. But the county vacancy rate is just over 1%.

With these figures in mind, Wilder, head of the Santa Clarita residents group, wants to head off any more park closures in the valley.

A lasting moratorium on park closures would not be the answer, he said, because a property owner has a right to use his land as he sees fit. Instead, Wilder’s group is encouraging local park residents to be ready to buy their land if it comes to that.

California law says that a park owner must give residents first right of refusal if a formal park organization is in place, Stewart said. So far, only a few Santa Clarita parks have organized such groups, Wilder said.

Malone said state and bank loans are available for purchase of the parks. The process is difficult, but not impossibly so, and some residents who bought their parks found their rents either stabilized or lowered, she said.

Despite their opposition to park closures, Malone, Wilder and even Desert Gardens residents were reluctant to blame the landowners. Both park owners and park residents are property owners, Malone said, and balancing conflicting interests of the two groups is not easy.

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“We know they have an investment,” said Joe Carrara, an actor who moved from Hollywood to Desert Gardens after purchasing a coach for $27,500. “But we have an investment too.”

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