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By Iracema Navarro, Editorial Intern
With the continued developments in Carson, mobile home park residents are on the edge of uncertainty. Within a mile from each other, mobile home parks are overshadowed by the 32,000-square-feet apartment building of Union South Bay.
Carson is changing the dynamic and losing the root to homeownership. Private owners are selling their land to developers to build tenant-occupied structures.
Low-income and affordable housing are at stake with the new developments.
Patricia Gray, an Imperial Avalon mobile home owner emailed the Carson Planning Commission, voicing her fear if the park closes.
“Just in case the rest of you are unaware of rent comps, I will not be able to rent anything; I don’t make the basic required move-in fee of three times that of my monthly income,” Gray said. “So by moving from the house that is fully paid for, in the community where I have bonded with my fictive kin for 27 years, I will be lonely and homeless.”
Although single-family homes are real estate investments, families also need access to lower-cost structures. With the cost of living ranging in the minimum limit of $1,500 a month for a one-bedroom condominium, seniors and low income families are in fear.
Carson’s Councilman Jawane Hilton said mobile homes and mobile home parks are a necessity for the city.
“We are definitely looking at the mobile home parks, there’s new legislation that we are trying to follow in line with,” Hilton said. “We want to make sure that [mobile homeowners] are safe and protected.”
The protections for residents discussed by the city and developers are for financial and relocation assistance along with prioritizing seniors in affordable housing.
“That is what we are asking our developers that are coming to the city, to allocate a certain percentage for affordable workforce housing,” Carson’s Mayor Lula Davis-Holmes said.
Seven existing affordable housing sites are all rental types and mostly provided only for seniors. With the economic potential of attracting developers in the City of Carson, voted members in the council will have the opportunity to establish more affordable housing for low-income families.
Including funds from the federal, state and local levels, Carson Housing Authority provides affordable housing options such as senior housing, multi-family housing and sale housing.
With more than five approved projects, three under review and three housing projects under construction, most of the developments are apartments and condominiums.
“We don’t have a lot of housing that is being built, we have a lot of apartments but I’m looking for more single-family homes to be built and we have to partner with the right developer,” Hilton said.
The city council has no say in the selling of mobile home parks because they are privately owned.
The city council of Carson and the mayor decide what developers come to the city after a presentation is done by the community development managers that have an interest in building in Carson.
Now residents and future residents drive the streets of Carson amazed by the already established apartment buildings, anxious to see in place the under construction developments, but dismissing the abandoned one level mobile home parks.
The proposed project to consider the relocation impact report related to the closure of Park Avalon Mobile Estates park was adjourned to April 13, 2021.
Park Avalon Mobile Estates has more than 100 mobile home residents who are awaiting the decision if they will have to look for another mobile home park, sell their home or look for another place to live.
With mobile home parks closing in Carson, such as Imperial Avalon Mobile Estates set to officially close in 2022, residents will have an option to return after three to four years, once the senior village is built.
“They have the option of coming back with the same amount of money that they are paying right now, if it is $600 or $400, they can come back and live in them,” Davis-Holmes said.
Imperial Avalon Mobile Estates has more than 400 seniors who live on a fixed income but now have less than 12 months to relocate after real estate company Faring Capital bought the land to build a mixed-use development.
The decision to close the park was made shortly before the State Assembly Bill 2782 passed. The bill, also known as Mobile Home Rent Control, changes the Mobile Home Residency Law from giving homeowners at least 15 days’ written notice to 60 days, allowing rent control on leases that are more than one year long and more protections for residents.
With requirements established in the proposal, the city is affirming new buyers in assisting mobile home residents in relocation fees and the opportunity to return to the new development.
“What we do want in closing, like in Imperial Avalon, we made sure they [mobile home owners] get a fair market value and many of them can return to the site once it is developed, that is what we are requiring the developer, Faring Capital,” Davis-Holmes said. “They’ll be buying those coaches, the cheapest coaches will be bought at $86,000 regardless if they only paid the 35 for it.”
Senior citizens, who own and live in the park, voiced their concerns on the streets in front of city hall shortly after the news broke out of the proposed development.
“The park owners are going above and beyond state law to accommodate residents and help find them their next homes. Although not required by state law, ownership has delayed the park closure and is providing early disbursement of funds to help residents with down payments on their future homes,” said Darren Embry, Imperial Avalon Community Development Director. “Over 30 households and counting have already taken advantage of the direct benefits being provided to them. The relocation benefits package provided to residents is over $22 million, making it one of the largest — if not the largest —benefits package ever paid for a private closure in California history.”
With the Imperial Carson Mobile Homes park set to close, a submitted application for Carson Lofts of two, three-story apartment buildings of 19 units are under review and an approved 300 multi-family residential units of Evolve South Bay/MBK Homes Apartments is set to begin construction.
Two months after the purchase, Faring Capital hired an appraiser to appraise each mobile home. Claire Condon Anderson, mobile home owner since 1983, expressed the insult she felt about the appraisal in a 2020 letter to the city.
“To add insult to injury, he and his associate grossly undervalued my home at $37,000 when I have records of similar homes selling recently for $150,000 to $200,000 locally and some were even in this same park,” Condon Anderson said. “If this park must be closed, we want the fair market value for our homes and not just the value of a scrap pile.”
