One Thing You Don't Have to Worry About...

If you are a resident in a Tatum-Kaplan mobile home park you a multitude of things to worry about every day.  Number one on the list is how you'll manage to pay the escalating rent this month.  Or maybe you worry about how to feed your family after you pay the rent that you never expected to be so high.  How about your health?  If you became ill and could not work, even for a short time, would our park owners show you and your family a bit of mercy and not throw you to the curb if you fall behind with the rent?  IMO probably not.

So, with no money left over at the end of the month, you don't have to worry about whether you  should open up a UBS Swiss Bank account.

"Where are our state and federal elected officials?"

"Where are our state and federal elected officials?"
When it comes to the abuses many residents of a Tatum Kaplan owned park must endure throughout each and every year this is an excellent question.  Every month seniors, minorities and those believing they had purchased affordable housing are being priced out of their homes by these two greedy SOB's.
"Where are our state and federal elected officials?"
It isn't that they don't know what is going on...they know exactly what is going on yet they still allow these so-called "sophisticated park owners" to continue to use deceptive business practices to take advantage of residents.  So why haven't our state and federal elected officials stepped in to put a stop to this?  The answer to this question may be that knowing the litigious nature of our park owners the state and federal officials do not wish to get tied up into a long drawn out and expensive lawsuit for the sake of  us.  Tatum and Kaplan know this and that is why their EVIL practices continue.

The City of El Monte appears to now be stepping up to the plate to take these on these bullies but I can't help but wonder what is being said behind closed doors.

The following is from the Pasadena Star News and yes...it is about Tatum and Kaplan's egregious rents and bullying tactics. (I have provided the highlights)

Edward Barrera: Mobile Park Owners Tell El Monte Voters: No Vote for You!

Posted:   09/15/2012 11:16:13 PM PDT

September 16, 2012 6:24 AM GMTUpdated:   09/15/2012 11:24:00 PM PDT

In El Monte, special interest groups, apparently, can threaten, bully and file legal actions, but voters can't vote. That's what the owners of a mobile home park seem to think after the city put Measure F on the November ballot.

The owners of Brookside Investments Ltd., which owns El Monte's Brookside Mobile Park Country Club, (cute marketing name), want the city to back off Measure F, which would repeal the deceptively named "Mobilehome Tenant Rent Assistance Program."

Proponents put a mobile home initiative on the ballot in 1990 to codify the so-called "rent assistance" program. While the measure gave low-income seniors a 10 percent rental discount, it also inserted a provision that has wreaked havoc on Brookside tenants. It barred the city from using taxpayer money or city resources to impose rent control laws on its mobile home parks.

I'm no fan of rent control. It's a well-meaning public policy that has generally had disastrous unintended consequences, especially stalling apartment construction by artificially depressing prices.

Having said that, I'm even less of a fan of a corporation bamboozling voters, taking advantage of seniors and minorities and then denying voters the right to rethink their earlier votes.

According to Maritza Velazquez of the San Gabriel Valley Tribune, some residents at Brookside pay more than $1,000 in rent. But the average rent at El Monte's mobile home parks is $489 for a single-wide space and $557 for a double-wide space.

The normal response with high rents is to move, but renters at mobile home parks usually own the mobile home and rent the land. Moving would cost thousands of dollars and could financially ruin these tenants, even if they had the money. Another last resort is to walk away from their homes.

But the city's hands have been tied because of the earlier initiative. Even the threat of a rent control ordinance could help these tenants.

Brookside owners know this so they came out swinging wildly, threatening poor tenants for complaining with a massive rent increase if the city didn't back down. They also threatened the city of El Monte with a lawsuit, oddly claiming that the city used taxpayer resources to enact rent control, demanding $100,000, for what I'm unclear, and $2 million in damages.

But it's a bully tactic to stop the city from doing its job. The people did not authorize a special interest to usurp its power to revisit past decisions. Voters have every right to rethink, and revote, on an ordinance that was passed 22 years ago.

I'm even more outraged that there isn't more outrage over this. Where are our state and federal elected officials? Where are those outraged over the foreclosure scandals? Where are the tenant advocacy groups?

On the ballot argument for "Yes on Measure F" I count five signatures: El Monte Mayor Andre Quintero, Councilwoman Norma Macias, Police Chief Steve Schuster, Director of Emergency Resources Association Lillian Rey and Brookside Mobile Home Park resident Sandy Witt. They, and anyone who has supported repealing this travesty, should be commended. But I especially give humble thanks to courageous resident Witt, who is literally putting her home on the line.

Witt received one of the notices threatening a rent increase if the initiative was put on the ballot. As she told the Tribune, "As it stands, with this rent increase, I'm probably going to be 605 (freeway) bridge resident." 

Edward Barrera is a South Pasadena resident and a former metro editor for the San Gabriel Valley Newspaper Group. He now does public relations for a health care company

BULLIES! BULLIES!! BULLIES!!!

The following is an article from the San Gabriel Valley Tribune...another example of Tatum-Kaplan pushing their litigious weight around with hopes that the city will back down.

El Monte mobile home park owners file claim against rent control ballot initiative

By Maritza Velazquez, SGVN
twitter.com/MaritzaSGVN

Posted:   09/05/2012 06:39:24 PM PDT

Updated:   09/05/2012 06:41:15 PM PDT

EL MONTE - The owners of a local mobile home park this week filed a claim against the city in an effort to halt the city from enacting rent control on mobile home property owners in the future.
Brookside Investments LTD., which owns El Monte's Brookside Mobile Country Club, 12700 Elliott Ave., is demanding $100,000 and the elimination of El Monte's Measure F ballot initiative in the upcoming special municipal election.
Resident complaints of high rents at Brookside sparked the council's decision to place the measure on the ballot.
The measure would repeal the 1990 voter-approved Mobilehome Tenant Rent Assistance Program and essentially allow the city to implement rent control.
While the 1990 ordinance provided a 10 percent rental discount for low-income seniors, it also included a clause barring the city from using taxpayer money or city resources to impose rent control laws on its mobile home parks.
Brookside attorneys are arguing that El Monte illegally passed resolutions to place Measure F on the ballot. They say the city used "tax expenditures relating to salaries and other consideration paid to Councilmembers, Attorneys and others... to deprive the citizens and property owners" of the benefits of the rental assistance program, according to the claim.
If the program is repealed, it will result in the violation of property owner rights and rental subsidies for the poor and needy, according to the claim.

---

Brookside attorneys did not respond to requests for comment on Friday.
The El Monte City Council discussed the issue in closed session at Tuesday's meeting, city officials said.
"We're going to take it one step at a time," said city attorney Dave Gondek.
Filing a claim with a municipality is a requirement prior to filing a lawsuit - something that Brookside has already threatened in response to the City Council's approval of the ballot initiative.
Following the city's decision to place the initiative on the ballot, Brookside also sent notices of rent increases to residents. One tenant received a letter this month that due to the city's decision, her rent was being increased by 17 percent to $1,482 a month. It was unknown how many residents received that letter.
The resident's increased rent will be nearly triple the average rent in El Monte's mobile home communities, according to a city survey. The average rent at El Monte's mobile home parks is $489 for a single-wide space and $557 for a double-wide space, according to a city survey in which 18 of 33 total park owners in the city responded.
Residents for years have complained about skyrocketing rent at Brookside mobile home park.
Mayor Andre Quintero called the latest claims from the Brookside owners "undemocratic."
"These people are very vindictive," Quintero said.
maritza.velazquez@sgvn.com