Lauri Ann's New Life

Looking Down to Capitola Village

It's no wonder people hate to leave here. This picture was taken New Year's Day. The sun is out. People are walking their dogs. The temp is almost 70. The water is like glass, disappointing only the surfers. I walk my mother in her wheelchair along the cliff to enjoy the sunshine and the scenery.  We like to sit out there and drink up the sunshine, watch the people from afar, and every once in awhile see a beautiful classic car go by.

Just a few days before Christmas, the scene we came home to was this-
The workers are stripping out the asbestos before getting ready to demolish the two mobile homes across the street. The blue one on the left should have been gone a long time ago. The one on the right affected me much more than I would have figured. The family there used to bring their little kids on holidays etc. and they would at times join my kids when they were little for fireworks in the middle of the street, etc. That mobile had been passed down in the family, and now all it is is an empty lot and a memory. Mr. Reed, the park owner, had taken that mobile home by a Warehouse Lien Sale after raising the rent there by 400%. He demolished 3 mobile homes in here that week. Can everyone say "Merry Christmas"?

Empty Lots and Their Idea of a Brillo Pad

Since we quit working on our place when we realized we wouldn't be able to stay here, I figure this will be the fate of our home also.

So now we are looking frantically for a place to go. Money is short due to having to pay the increased rent all these months so we could stay here as long as we have. I'm looking for other possibilities around this area, and then have also been looking in SoCal or Vegas. Once again I turn my attention to Craig's List. LOL. Brokers have all kinds of listings on there, but more importantly to me, there are people who are trying to sell their homes themselves who are a little more open to negotiations than a broker might be. After going through all we've been through over the last 2, going on 3 yrs., for the first time in my life I am looking for something secure. I have decided we are all too old to have to be doing major moves every year. I just don't have the energy anymore, and we don't travel as light as we did when we were in our 20's. LOL.

Last post I showed you the new door and window that replaced that trashy looking tarp on the front of our home office. Yesterday, Nick called me to let me know he had 3 pints of paint to finish it. Today I will be calling him to let him know the paint won't be necessary. We are losing our home and will be out of here by the end of January.  Thank goodness we didn't spend a ton of money to fix up this place!

We had a pretty good case against the park owner for denying us tenancy, but now that the City has done away with all rent control leaving the park owner to charge what ever he chooses for space rent, there is no point in even fighting any longer. He has raised our rent over 300% and according to my lawyer, could raise it again every 90 days. I'll tell you, I just want to live in peace for a change. I don't know how these people who have been fighting with him for the last decade have lasted. Many of them didn't. And it's getting worse here everyday.

We've had quite a few just walk away from their homes. A couple people have died in the past. Their surviving family members swear it was the stress from the park that finally did in their loved ones. There are a couple now that have cancer and feel they don't have the strength to fight cancer and the park owner both, so they are walking away.

I have never known the old adage "there's no justice for the poor" as it has appeared in the mobile home park. The park owner and his lawyers have and are breaking laws at every turn, but there appears to be no way to stop him. People are either too intimidated to fight, afraid they will lose their leases, or they can't afford to fight the deep pockets of the park owner. His lawyers are known for inundating their opponents in paperwork until their opponents break. They are doing it to whole cities, what chance do little, low income, elderly people have? Not much I'm afraid.

I'll still be carrying on with the blog, but maybe with a little different angle and more tips. I'm not sure. We'll just have to see what direction God takes us. LOL

It's been a little bit since I posted here. It's just so hard to rebuild, be a political activist, and post. LOL.

Psycho-Kitty

I'll start with the psycho kitty. I found her in our garage in the house we used to live in. The mother had abandoned her (now I find with good reason) and left her sitting on a shelf meowing. Of course I had to rescue her, so I brought her in the house and we bottle fed her "kitty formula" until she could eat and drink on her own. She had a pretty rough "kitty-hood". First she had to get all her kitty shots, which she didn't appreciate much. Then my son stepped on her little leg and she had to have a cast put on. When she was 4 months old I had her fixed, which now I'm wondering if that is part of her problem. Maybe I should have let her have a litter first. All these little trips to the vet, and I'm usually the one that takes her. Needless to say, she hated me until my kids grew up enough to leave home and I'm the only one she has left. LOL.

When we moved to the mobile, there is no way to let psycho-kitty outside. She goes completely psychotic out of her comfort zone. She needs glasses, and because she's so far sighted, she doesn't jump and stuff like other cats. When we lived in our other house, there was a fence around the yard but it was tall enough I don't think she could ever see to the top, so she never jumped and I never had to worry about her getting out. So, I decided we needed to do something so she could go outside here. Tom was very good and built a fence around the porch, which we had discussed doing anyway. It only took my black cat 2 days to teach the psycho kitty how to jump the porch, so we can't let her out anymore. She climbs the lattice. So now the plan is to put plastic or acrylic along the backside so she can't climb it like a ladder. What a pain. LOL.

As you can see from the pic above, I still don't have an office door. That green thing in the back is still the tarp that was there when I took the mobile back. Guess what? I put an ad under the "wanted" section of Craig's List for sliding doors, or exterior doors, and got a couple replies. Unfortunately, if you have sliders but don't have a frame, it's pretty tough to get the frame by itself, so that pretty much ruled that out. I had a guy willing to sell me the sliding glass doors cheap, but couldn't make it work. Then, a guy that had bought some flagstone from us and we gave an extra cast iron sink to if he would just take it, contacted me with exterior doors, window blinds, curtains, etc. I am so jazzed! He is super reasonable for pricing on his exterior doors and windows. He has the door jamb and everything!

So now that we may actually almost get this place finished, where do we stand? Well the City of Capitola reached an agreement with our park owner and amended our rent control ordinance. Talk about selling your soul to the devil! The City of Capitola signed the agreement thinking the owner would raise rents, etc. "in good faith". WRONG. He and his lawyers, Hart, King, and Coldren, aka HK&C have gone hog-wild. They handed out 252 page leases with many objectionable clauses. They are doing illegal 'Warehouse Lien Sales' or at least one that I know of (because it's me), and anything else they can do to get ahold of the mobile homes in here. They raised rents to double and quadruple what the appraiser for the City of Capitola's unbiased appraiser says they should be, and that appraisal was done based on the infrastructure being in good condition here, which it is not.

Sam Storey, Mike Termini- City Council

Mayor Norton

Needless to say, since the amendment to the rent control ordinance, while the City of Capitola may have dodged two lawsuits (that they very likely would have won) they became the subject of two more lawsuits. One they already won, although they shouldn't have, and I hope the fighting for that one isn't over yet. The other won was some of the residents in the park against the park owner. The park owner then filed a cross-complaint against the City. At the end of August, the Capitola City Council held a meeting to repeal rent control completely. That was considered the "first reading". The "second reading" and to make it into an ordinance was to happen Sept. 8th. Surprise! At the Sept. 8th meeting, the Capitola City Council voted to shelve the repeal "indefinitely". We'll see how long "indefinitely" is. The Mayor, during a break after the vote says it's only the next month or two.

We've already lost some of our neighbors who weren't able to afford the higher rents. A lot of us are still here fighting, although it's tough since most are low income seniors and lawyers cost money. Which, by the way, if you care to donate anything, anything at all to our "legal fund" please contact me at lauribeamish@gmail.com. Any amount would be appreciated. In the meantime, I've posted a couple pics below of our new neighbors. I wish I could catch some of the cubs, but haven't been successful so far. LOL.

Mama shares the catfood on the porch

She likes crackers. Drew her out for a pic

Hide-A-Bed & Cat Stand

As promised in my last post, here's a picture of our new (new to us) queen size hide-a-bed. The cushions are in great condition, and they tell me so is the mattress. We couldn't have gotten it any too soon as my oldest daughter spent a couple of nights here last week, and my son is coming for about 9 days on the 26th of this month. Not only are the cushions in great shape, but all that blue are custom made slip covers to just unzip and throw in the wash when necessary. Truly a steal at $35.00.

Tom finally got around to making a scratch pole for the cats. We had left over material from the carpet we had gotten off Craig's List, and from tearing down a lot of Larkin's mess around here. It turned out really great except the top peace is just a little too small and the cats hang out over the end. LOL. I think we're going to have to change that to just a flat platform that is a bit bigger in circumference. Tom's a little worried that if he does that, it will tip too easily, so we'll have to do a little research first.

Sign Outside One Resident's Home

The Surf and Sand Mobile Home Park has been in total chaos since the park owner and his attorneys sent out the lease packages, income verifications, notices, and intimidating letters. For homeowners in the park, the park owner has to give 90 days notice before he can raise any rents. For me, since I have never been accepted for tenancy, the park owner has tripled our rent and is calling it "Storage Fees", effective July 1. He and his attorneys still say we have no right to occupy my mobile home. The lawyer I spoke to says he can't advise me to pay it because the park owner could just keep raising it and still never give me tenancy. I paid what the space rent should be plus the utilities, and am expecting an eviction notice anytime now. They gave me until 5:00 last Monday to pay the difference and I advised them I wasn't going to, so now they have given me until 5:00 this Monday, the 18th to pay. I am going to have to retain a lawyer eventually, so lately I'm working on how to raise money for a "legal" fund. LOL.

Residents of Surf and Sand Beg for Mercy