By Brooklynn Wong
Residents had some impassioned words for the Anaheim City Council last week, calling what they were experiencing “a form of elder abuse” and saying some of them were “walking around about to commit suicide, and I am not exaggerating,” over how hopeless they felt.
Rancho La Paz, a mobile home park, in the far northern reaches of the city, on Orangethorpe between Lemon Street and Raymond Avenue, bordering Fullerton, is home to 247 residents, many of whom are seniors on a fixed income. Recently, they received notice that a new company had purchased the park and rents were going to increase by 44%, or $300-$400 more than residents pay now.
Many residents of the park showed up to the March 19 City Council Meeting and spoke during oral communications, with comments ranging from literal cries for help to angry, pointed questions—one resident asked, “When will you, our elected officials, say enough is enough?”
The residents painted a dire and dramatic picture, of many of the elderly residents of Rancho La Paz having no family and nowhere they could turn for help, being hit hard emotionally by this news.
One speaker said the people who live in the mobile home park are “not lowlives; they’re people who carefully planned to downsize from a house in retirement.”
Another resident said when she moved in, she heard that the rent would never go up more than five or ten dollars a month. She never would have moved into Rancho La Paz if she had known this dramatic increase was a possibility, she said.
By one resident’s calculations, there would need to be a minimum wage of $48 per hour to keep up with the rent increase.
“This is a declaration of a housing state of emergency,” one said, and it was requested that the city form a Rent Stabilization Task Force.
The way many see it, what’s going on at Rancho La Paz is a microcosm of a larger pattern in Anaheim and Orange County in general.
There already was a housing crisis-related item on the agenda for later in the meeting, as Councilman Jordan Brandman had requested some time ago that, in the language of the agenda, the Council “receive an overall view of rental affordability in the city and rent stabilization tools in use in other jurisdictions and provide direction to staff, should Council desire additional action.”
Deputy City Manager David Belmer was the primary presenter, and he presented data that showed that rents have in fact escalated faster than incomes in Anaheim over recent years. But, he said, that is not unique to Anaheim, and that the average of $1700/month is actually lower than a lot of surrounding cities’ averages.
And, city staff acknowledged, these general increases are partially thanks to a trend of overall economic prosperity in the city. As a result of a period of “sustained economic growth” in Anaheim, the tides have been rising in many economic areas.
From a macro perspective, staff said they looked at other cities and found that between 15 and 19 of California’s 482 cities have implemented some kind of rent control. Inglewood, for example, was experiencing significant rent increases around the football stadium now under construction, where the Los Angeles Rams and Chargers will soon play. Rent controls were implemented to allow residents to stay in the area without their rent going up significantly, despite the gentrification and improvements that were driving up demand.
As for Anaheim, one of the only regulations in place right now is that companies must properly notify residents when rent is increasing. This often means giving them 30 days notice if the rent is increasing by a certain amount.
Councilman Jose Moreno spoke at length, expressing frustration, and pressing Deputy City Manager Belmer on whether there wasn’t something that the city could do in situations like that of Rancho La Paz.
Belmer and the others who presented said no, essentially, that there is not much that the city can do to keep private entities from raising rents.
Councilman Trevor O’Neil emphasized the importance of taking a holistic approach, including “consider[ing] workforce development” and factoring in people increasing their incomes to the equation.
Ultimately O’Neil proposed that a working group be formed of himself, Mayor Pro Tem Lucille Kring and Councilman Stephen Faessel. This was voted on by the Council, and passed 5-2, with Councilmen Moreno and Brandman voting against, and both expressing frustration that this group would be too monolithic, and that their diverse and more progressive points of view needed to be included.
However this working group is now formed and will come up with ideas privately that will be brought back to Council in the near future.
