By Joseph Baroud, Reporter
The intersection of Carson and Avalon was surrounded with the deafening sounds of
honking cars on Oct. 20 in support of more than 30 demonstrators protesting the
attempted displacement of residents from the Imperial Avalon Mobile Home Park.
As the City of Carson moves forward with redevelopment projects they believe will add more quality retail options and market rate housing, mobile home residents believe these improvements are happening at the expense of their housing security.
Residents have decided to take to the streets because the phone calls and the letters aren’t yielding results. This is the second week of protests. Residents are joined by supporters and representatives of their homeowner’s association in order to reverse the momentum with public support.
During a July 7 council meeting in which representatives from Faring Capital joined the council to discuss this situation, Darren Embry, a representative of Faring, which is part of the relocation project team that has been tasked with Imperial Avalon and handles community development, said that residents have until January 2022 to find a new home.
The relocation project team that will handle the move presented a chart to the City
Council’s planning commission. Embry said that each resident will be provided this chart and given the chance to make a selection of which buyback rate they would like to use to complete this transaction.
Jeff Steiman, 55, a resident and representative of the mobile home homeowners’
association said that as of Oct. 26 residents haven’t been given a choice about the rate at which they want to sell their house. Steiman also says the resident’s first right of refusal wasn’t respected.
Homeowners say that they’re being offered a significantly low value for their homes.
Glenn White, 66, who has been living there for 21 years, said he was being offered
$10,000 for his home valued at $80,000.
“The residents have been offered on site market value,” Marcela Steiman, 62, said. “We want fair market value because we have to go out to search the housing market with less money. Why in the hell would we move into another mobile home park when they are all being bought up by all the investors?”
The entity who conducted the appraisals for the homes was Faring Capital, which also
bought the property. White says that the council is helping Faring Capital obtain mobile home parks, because Faring makes hefty contributions to the council.
“The main voting bloc allowing Faring Capital to buy up all the mobile home parks are
led by city council members Lula Davis-Holmes, Jawane Hilton and Cedric Hicks,” White said.
Carla Zanotti, 48, who has lived at Imperial Avalon for 40 years, said she received a
change of ownership notice in August and a promise from the new proprietors, Faring
Capital, that they would find everybody a residence in Carson and they would take care of all of the moving fees. That didn’t happen, so she took the matter up with an attorney and is scheduled to meet Nov. 4 to discuss her options.
The City Council has scheduled a meeting on Oct. 28 at Dignity Park to hold an open
discussion with affected residents. Steiman said that the City Council wants residents of the various affected mobile home parks to attend this meeting. They requested that representatives from Faring Capital attend as well.
“When the mobile home lots were built, they were intended to be an affordable way instead of living on the street,” Steiman said.