Trailer Park Owners Deny Charges of Eviction Ploy : Rent Increases Make Tenants See Red

Along with his neighbors at the Ashley Trailer Park in an unincorporated area on the eastern fringe of Pasadena, 80-year-old Ralph Hune remembers bitterly the day in early June when the letters came.

The letters were from the park’s owners, informing tenants of the 23-space park on Colorado Boulevard that as of Aug. 1, their rents would be going up by anywhere from 70% to 400%.

For Hune, this meant that the rent on his 12-by-18-foot space would be raised from $130 to $350 a month.

At the same time, Hune, who had put down a $87.20 security deposit on the space, was told he would have to pay a supplemental deposit of $312.80. To stay in the space where his trailer has sat the last 27 years, he has to come up with $662 by Friday.

“That’s way beyond my Social Security check,” Hune said. “And if I don’t pay it, I suppose they’ll throw me out.”

That, according to Hune and his neighbors, is exactly what the park’s owners want. They claim that owners Jack McCaskill and Richard and Mary Coffin are using the rent increases and supplemental security deposits to illegally evict residents so they can put the park property to more profitable use.

Under a recently enacted state law, trailer park owners wishing to change the use of their property must give residents a 12-month notice and assist them in relocation. The residents say that the owners are using the increases as a means of skirting that law.

The park’s owners have refused to comment on the rent increases, either to residents or to the media. However, their attorney, Francesca de la Flor, said the increases are necessary to make the park “economically viable.”

Seizing the Opportunity

“What’s happened is that rent control has been lifted in the county of Los Angeles and rents are going up all over,” De la Flor said. “Once rent control was lifted, the owners saw it as an opportunity to get fair-market value, given the park’s desirable location.

“If they wanted to evict them, they could give them their 12-month notice and raise the rent.”

Four residents have left the park since the rent increases were announced. But the 13 others, either unwilling or unable to move, say they are going to stay and fight.

Basil Tellou, 62, said he urged his neighbors to bring pressure to bear on the park’s owners by publicizing their battle.

“I just kept telling everyone that if we just lay down and let people do evil with impunity, they’re just going to keep on doing it,” said Tellou, whose rent is being raised from $43 to $225 a month and who also is being asked to pay a $275 deposit.

“I absolutely refuse to pay it because there’s something rotten going on,” Tellou said. “They’re not running a trailer park, they’re running an eviction center, because they want us all out,”

The flamboyant Tellou, a former actor who currently lists among his professions, “poet and mystic,” attracted local newspapers and television crews to the park.

Neighbor Mary Morton wrote letters to public officials, including President Reagan. The residents who had decided to stay in the park chipped in $70 apiece and retained an attorney.

Producing Results

Soon, they began to see results. Pasadena attorney Howard Rotter told them that they had a case and announced his intention to file a request for a temporary restraining order enjoining the rent increases and any attempts to evict the residents.

County Supervisor Mike Antonovich wrote to Morton that the county counsel was looking into their allegations against the park’s owners.

This week, Rotter and De la Flor met to negotiate an agreement between the residents and owners.

However, Rotter said that the two are still “far apart,” and that he plans to file the request for a restraining order Friday if an agreement has not been reached. De la Flor was not available to comment on the negotiations.

Results Expected

Meanwhile, the county counsel’s office is expected to complete its investigation by the end of this week, said Dave Vannatta, an Antonovich aide.

Rotter and the residents say that the rent increases are the culmination of a lengthy effort by the owners to clear the park.

Over the past six months, seven spaces have become vacant without being filled by new tenants. During most of that time, a sign reading, “Sorrey (sic) no vacancy” was posted on the park’s front gate, Rotter said. The sign was removed shortly after it was shown on a television news broadcast.

‘Not Renting Any Spaces’

Ten of the 23 spaces remain vacant. Residents say this makes them dubious about the park owners’ claims that the rent increases are economically motivated.

“They’re not renting any spaces,” said Leroy Scarbrough, 59, whose rent is going from $220 to $350. “If their expenses are going up, why aren’t they renting any spaces?”

Before the rent increases were announced, Gladys Blankenship, 73, lived rent free as the park’s manager. As of Aug. 1, she will have to pay $350, like the rest of the tenants.

During the past six months, she said, the park’s owners have told her not to rent to new tenants.

Begging for Rentals

“People would come in here and beg me for spots,” Blankenship said. “I’d say, ‘They just won’t let me rent them.’ ”

De la Flor disputed the residents’ claim that the owners have been trying to drive people out of the park.

“They are trying to rent to people,” she said.

“When they raised the rent to a point where it reflects the desirable location of the trailer park, some of the people who were used to paying the artificially low rent said, ‘Jeez, this is too much’ and moved out. Some new tenants have been attracted and I believe they’ll be moving in.”

Rationale for Sign

As for the no vacancy sign, De la Flor said that the owners were seeking to discourage renters from bothering residents at the park.

She said the owners are planning to hire a new park manager.

“The reason for the no vacancy sign was that there was no one on the property there who could deal with prospective tenants,” she said. “It wasn’t that they didn’t want to rent to people, I think they didn’t want Gladys renting to people.”

Rotter said that the owners’ claim that higher rents are needed to make the park show a profit is belied by the new rental rates, which he said are double the going rate in the area.

Aligned With Market

“They say they want to make money,” Rotter said. “Well, you can’t make money if you don’t rent to anybody and then double your rents.”

De la Flor said that the rent increases bring Ashley Trailer Park in line with the market.

“The owners hired somebody to canvass the area and find out what trailer parks are going at,” she said. “You see rents in the high $200s and low $300s in areas that are much less desirable.”

However, rents are considerably lower at Royal Palms Park, located in the same block of Colorado Boulevard.

Vacant Spaces Scarce

Park manager Ruby Connatser said that even after scheduled rent increases go into effect Aug. 1, the most expensive space will rent for $200 a month.

Although rents at other parks may be lower, residents say vacant spaces are hard to find.

“I’ve been looking, but I can’t find a space available,” said Scarbrough, who lives on state disability insurance.

“Every place we find, if they got a vacancy, they let the mobile home manufacturers have the space. If you already own your own mobile home, the only way you can get a space is to buy the land.”

Limited Alternatives

The options are even more limited for Hune, who like many of his neighbors, suffers from health problems.

“I can’t look for another place,” Hune said. “I’ve got bad eyes. I can’t drive a car. I can’t even ride a bus because I can’t see the signs coming.”

De la Flor said that the owners are making every effort to find new homes for any tenants displaced by the rent increases.

“The owners have no intention of throwing these people out in the street, particularly people who are old or on fixed incomes,” she said. “They plan to help relocate them.”

But the residents say that they have heard nothing of plans to relocate them.

“Not only are they not relocating us, they’re kicking us in the teeth, telling us to get the hell out,” Tellou said.

Resident Bill Hensley, 56, said he is not worried about relocation, since he has a place to park his trailer if he has to move. But he said he is remaining in the park on principle.

“I love these people and they’ve got a good cause,” Hensley said. “I’m going to stay and help them fight.”