Rancho La Paz issue resurfaces; Council votes to seek alternatives to ensure residents can stay
By Brooklynn Wong
After seeing a protest outside City Hall and hearing dozens of residents’ opinions during oral communication, the Anaheim City Council has voted against rent control.
Rancho La Paz, the mobile home park that straddles Anaheim and Fullerton, made news earlier this year when a new owner took over, and significantly raised the rents.
Many of the residents of the park are elderly and on a fixed income. They brought the issue to the City Council in February, and the Council took quick action, meeting with John Saunders, the new owner, and getting him to agree to a cutback on the rates for a few months.
But now the issue is surfacing again; a group of Rancho La Paz residents had been negotiating with Saunders, but they say the negotiations have been unsuccessful from their perspective.
A similar situation has transpired at the Casa Grande apartments in Anaheim.
Before last week’s City Council Meeting on June 18, several protested outside City Hall, about Rancho La Paz, about Casa Grande, and about the need for rent stabilization in Anaheim in general.
When the Council Meeting got started, many spoke about the issue, saying at Rancho La Paz, there have been at least two deaths directly related to the tension caused by the rent increase.
Residents said some who were planning to retire and spend the rest of their days there will now not be able to afford it, and will be forced to sell and relocate.
There also are disruptions caused by ongoing construction, which prompted one resident to say, “The place is falling apart.”
The specific agenda item up for discussion at this meeting was an item proposed by Council Member Jose Moreno, to temporarily (for six months) stop rent hikes. However Council Member Denise Barnes was the only other one to support this initiative, and it was voted down.
Council Member Trevor O’Neil presented his own research, and said that the rent at such parks is still lower than others in the area. O’Neil serves on the Council’s Ad Hoc Housing Committee, and said they have been meeting regularly, and that he will bring forward some alternative ideas to city-imposed rent control soon.
