Living in Limbo in an Aging Trailer Park

For 20 years, Arthur Whetsell was a gardener for Pasadena city schools.

Now, at age 69, he lives alone in an 18-foot trailer, stretches his retirement check to make ends meet and tries to figure out what he will do when his East Pasadena trailer park closes in November.

“They say, ‘Go down to one of those senior citizen places and sign up,’ ” Whetsell said Tuesday, amid shiny aluminum trailer sidings and scattered rubble at the half-empty Royal Palms mobile home park on Colorado Boulevard.

“But I don’t want to go to one of those places,” he said. “They got their finger on you and you can’t come and go. I want to stay in my trailer.”

Whetsell and 23 of his neighbors--mostly senior citizens who own second-hand trailers--are in limbo. Although they have been offered relocation benefits by a developer, they say their aging units will not be welcome at other mobile home parks and that many of them cannot afford to move into apartments. They have been ordered to vacate the park by mid-November to make way for a $4.5-million hotel and shopping complex.

Their case, typical of many others in which older trailer parks have been squeezed out of communities throughout the county, made its way to the Board of Supervisors Tuesday.

The board, alerted by Supervisor Mike Antonovich’s request for a temporary halt to park closures, directed its staff to draft guidelines for such closures.

Antonovich, without enough votes to pass the moratorium as an emergency measure, moved instead for the guidelines and a prompt hearing on the issue, probably within six weeks.

State law requires owners of mobile home parks to determine the impact of closures on residents and to identify places where they may move.

But the state law leaves it to local governments to decide the amount of relocation assistance and to develop regulations to make sure state law is followed, said Dave Vannatta, planning deputy to Antonovich.

“The state law is real nebulous. And the county has not implemented the law. What we need to do is put something on the books ourselves,” Vannatta said.

In the meantime, residents at Royal Palms and at a declining number of other parks countywide may wonder what their rights are.

Old trailer parks--often replaced by more profitable hotels, shopping centers and condominiums--are closing in nearby Monrovia and in such South Bay communities as Torrance, Hawthorne, Lomita and Lennox. The county has also closed a number of inner-city parks because of unsanitary conditions.

State housing officials reported in July that the number of mobile home parks in Los Angeles County had dropped from 770 in 1986 to 742. Although that figure indicates some stability, officials said, it reflects both the growth of new parks in suburban areas and the decline of old trailer parks occupied by low-income tenants.

Few City Regulations

Although some cities have clarified the state law with their own regulations, attorney Kenneth H. Carlson, who represents a Royal Palms homeowners group, said those cities are in the minority.

“Most cities and counties haven’t addressed this problem at all. Parks have just closed without any review,” Carlson said.

According to Carlson, Kamridge Partnership, the Monterey Park investment firm that owns Royal Palms, has not followed state notification requirements as it has moved toward closure over the last 10 months.

Real estate broker Michael Lee, a partner in Kamridge and developer of the hotel project, said he believed his representatives had followed the state law and also had offered $1,800 to each mobile home owner who will be displaced. About 15 of the 39 have accepted the offer.

“The county does not have any guidelines for how much we are to pay, so we followed what has been paid before (at other closed parks),” Lee said. “I think it is fair.”

Higher Settlement Urged

But attorney Carlson said a fair settlement for Royal Palms trailer owners should exceed the $1,500 plus $300 for moving expenses offered by Kamridge.

“The reason these people live in a trailer park is because they can’t afford apartment rents. They own their own trailer and pay $200 a month for a space,” he said.

“If you give them $1,500 and push them out, they’ll use that for first and last month’s rent, then be evicted for non-payment and become homeless,” he said.

Some trailer owners also stand to lose thousands of dollars because they can find no place to move their coaches, and the homes can’t be sold for a reasonable amount without a space, Carlson said. That should be considered when settlements are awarded, he said.

Robert McCallum, 62, a clerk at an off-track betting operation, may face a large loss on his trailer.

McCallum said he paid $11,000 for his 1969 single-wide mobile home seven years ago, still owes $8,000 on it and can probably sell it for $2,500 if he can’t find a place to move it.

“That’s what the guy right next door got, $2,500,” McCallum said. “If you don’t sell them on property you lose 80% of their value.”

The developer’s relocation report said that because of age and condition most of Royal Palms trailers “will not be accepted in a newer trailer park.” The report says that spaces costing about $150 more a month than at Royal Palms are available in El Monte, Alhambra, San Gabriel and in the region’s desert communities.

Whetsell, a park resident since 1977, said a number of his friends have already moved, most of them after selling their old trailers. One friend is happy with his move to Hemet and another, who sold his trailer for $500, is comfortable in a Glendora apartment.

Limited Prospects

But Whetsell, who now pays only $150 of his $825 monthly income for rent, has had less luck.

“I went out to Eagle Rock a couple of weeks ago to look for a place, but they won’t allow me to pull something like this in there,” he said, pointing to his battered trailer.

A number of other residents have even more limited incomes.

Nancy Estes, 65, a resident of Royal Palms for four years, said she may not get any relocation benefits because she is a renter. And her $550 monthly income hardly qualifies her for an apartment.

“Everybody’s supposed to be out in November, but I just don’t know where I’m going to go,” she said. “A social worker is working on it, but she hasn’t found anything yet.”