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Mobile Home Residents In Carson Say Closing Their Park Leaves Them With No Affordable Place To Live
On Thursday, Carson residents protested their planned removal from the Imperial Avalon Mobile Home Park.
(
Courtesy Jeff Steiman
)
Residents of a mobile home park in Carson are pushing back against plans to move them out to make way for a new development — and they took their protest to Carson City Hall on Thursday.
They say Faring Capital — which now owns Imperial Avalon Mobile Estates — offered them payments far below market value to leave. They also say city officials in Carson signed off on the payments instead of fighting for a better deal. They want the city and Faring Capital to find and fund new homes.
Jeff Steiman says he and his neighbors have lived at Imperial Avalon Mobile Estates for decades — and can't afford to move someplace else.
A person sitting in a wheel chair and wearing a wide-brimmed hat carries a sign that reads: "COUNCIL $OLD ME OUT"
(
Courtesy Jeff Steiman
)
Sponsor
"The money that they're giving these people who are mostly elderly, they're vets — I've got five different languages in here. None of these people have savings, IRAs, 401Ks — anything like that — that is going to allow them to replace their home in Carson," said Steiman.
Around 400 people live at the mobile home park.
The L.A. real estate website The Real Deal says Faring Capital says plans to replace the mobile home park with a mixed-use development.
According to a notice filed with the city, the development will include "roughly 680 market-rate apartments, 180 senior apartments, 380 townhomes and 7,152 sf of restaurant/café uses."
(
Courtesy City of Carson
)
Faring Capital plans to replace the mobile home park with mixed-use developments.
(
Courtesy Jeff Steiman
)
Sharon Landers, City Manager for Carson, said the city doesn't have much control over the situation. Landers said in an email to LAist:
Sponsor
"While the City Council can’t prevent a land owner from closing a mobile home park, to address the current situation, the City has been an advocate for the mobile home park residents that are being displaced, seeking to maximize benefits provided by the land owners to those residents."
The City of Carson said in a news release that they have offered residents multiple options which include paying residents the "appraised on-site value" of their unit.
Faring Capital did not respond to a request for comment.
Corrected July 19, 2021 at 10:47 AM PDT
A previous version of this story incorrectly said about 500 people live at the mobile home park. The correct number is around 400.
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