Imperial Avalon Mobile Estates Residents Get Eviction Reprieve

Dozens of Carson mobile home park residents got a reprieve from their Nov. 1
eviction after a judge granted an open-ended temporary restraining order to allow
Imperial Avalon LLC and the residents to work on a longer-term solution.

On Oct. 31, the tenants asked a judge to stop their evictions, at least for now. The park
had been set to close Nov. 1.

“These are their homes and it’s their lives, and they stood up for them,” said park
resident Jeff Steinman, president of the Imperial Avalon Mobile Estates HOA. “And it
has not been easy for any of them.”

Steinman noted the residents felt a great deal lighter after the judge’s ruling.

“It gives everybody more time to figure out what they’re going to do,” Steinman said.
“Imperial Avalon LLC still has to come back with something where they’re not
warehousing these people for an open-ended period of time.”

In court, Boyd Hill, the attorney for Imperial Avalon LLC, said the company tried to
work with the remaining residents for relocation assistance. He said residents refused to
cooperate.

In a statement he said in part: “We have tried for more than three years to assist the
remaining residents, and today, a judge ruled that those residents are now required to
meet with our relocation specialists.”

Steinman and the rest of the mobile home residents refuted the allegations.

“We tried to meet with them, they didn’t want to be with us,” Steinman said. “They
wanted to know why it took so long for us to get here on the last day. Everybody knows
why. It’s to stop the evictions.”

Two years ago, the City of Carson agreed to help mobile home residents with
relocation fees and the opportunity to return to the new development.

Four years ago, Faring Capital (which later formed Imperial Avalon LLC), purchased
Imperial Estates Mobile Home park in order to turn it into a 1,200 unit mixed-use
development. In exchange for allowing the sale to go forward, the city got Faring Capital
to agree to some concessions, including buying the residents’ mobile homes, albeit not at
market rate, and a right to live in the development after it was built.

Indeed, the city gave the residents three options:

Option A, residents would be given relocation assistance and fees to move to
another park. Very few residents would be able to move due the declining number of parks in the first place and very few spots in those parks remain. Additionally, most parks won’t allow mobile homes older than five years old. Only 10 of the 203 mobile homes were eligible to be relocated within 50 miles.

Option B, residents would be given a lump sum payment that would include the
appraised on-site value of the mobile home in exchange for the mobile home title without any liens attached. If a resident still has a mortgage, Faring Capital would use that lump sum to pay off that mortgage or lien and the resident would get whatever is left, plus relocation costs.

Option C would apply to residents whose households qualify as extremely low
income, very low income, or low income households and want to relocate to an
available rental unit owned by an affiliate of Faring Capital. The resident would
receive 30% of the appraised on-site value of the mobile home in exchange for the mobile home title, lien free. In addition, the resident would receive a guaranteed right to tenancy at a Faring Capital-affiliated development for 10 years at affordable housing rent levels, consistent with the resident’s income qualifications based on the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Most residents chose options B or C. And the residents that were at the courthouse were ones who chose Option C.

The two sides are scheduled to be back in court on Dec. 1.

But How Did We Get Here?
When the issues around the valuation of the mobile homes came up, residents say that the city did little to figure out a way how residents on a fixed income could relocate to interim housing without meeting rental requirements in today’s rental market.

Steinman argues that it comes down to the promise made to residents as part of the resolution of the Imperial Estates mobile home park closing. And that had to do with the interim housing in which the residents would be housed.

“We would be in it for two to three years while they build the new project,” Steinman explained. “Except there was no interim housing available.”

Indeed, the amount of choices in Carson, or even the wider South Bay/Los Angeles Harbor Area are out of the price ranges of many of the remaining residents. But the even bigger problem is that these folks don’t qualify for any of the housing.

Steinman said the relocation specialists thought they were going to just give them Zillow listings and send them out to secure a place to live on their own. The problem is that when residents applied, even offering to pay a year up front in rent, building managers didn’t
want it. They wanted to see income every month that is at least three times the rent, Steinman explained. The city didn’t even offer to negotiate on behalf of the residents. They just went along and pushed this ahead.

Many of the remaining residents are living off of Social Security. “They’re all seniors,” Steinman said.

After an Oct. 28, 2020 workshop, exactly one week before the 2020 city elections, they didn’t hear from their councilman again.

“Our own City Councilman, Juwane Hilton, hasn’t spoken to us since Oct. 28 [2020], he hasn’t even come around. Didn’t check up on anything. But he’s been at all these meetings that we spoke at,” Steinman said.

Random Lengths reached out to Carson Mayor Lula Davis Holmes, and Councilmembers Juwane Hilton and Jim Dear and City Planning Commissioner Mike Mitoma.

Dear, the only city figure to get back to Random Lengths, said the city attorney’s office suggested that city council members not comment on the issue given the city could be involved in potential litigation over the issues.

After the Oct. 28 ruling, however, Carson Mayor Lula Davis-Holmes reportedly said the city’s efforts included securing a $600,000 grant from the state’s Permanent Local Housing Allocation Program, which can be used by qualified Imperial Avalon residents for up to $2,500 a month in rental assistance once they relocate.

Each qualified household can get up to $15,000, the mayor told the Daily Breeze, adding that she encourages the residents to apply for this income-based grant as soon as possible to secure their additional funding. The information for this grant has been forwarded to the relocation consultant, she said. This money is in addition to the incentive package already provided by the developer, city officials said.

Councilman Jim Dear read from a letter to Random Lengths which was given to him by the city attorney’s office. The letter said at the time of the park’s closing, a California state law went into effect that imposed greater restrictions on how far the city could go in
giving support in relocating residents.

“We pushed the envelope pretty far because I, Jim Dear, tried to get the maximum benefits for the people of the mobile home park,” Dear said. “We imposed more benefits than state law outlined.”

Dear said he was against changing the use of the mobile home park and advocated for more benefits on behalf of the residents at city council, but ultimately he voted no on the relocation program because he didn’t support relocating residents. He wanted to keep them in place.

“I don’t really want any parks closed in Carson if we can help it,” Dear said.

Carson’s municipal elections for the seats of Councilman Juwane Hilton in District 1 and Councilman Cedric Hicks, and the mayor’s seat are up for reelection in November 2024.