260504 Rosemead Mobile Homes Solidarity Press Conference

Park Monterey and Paradise Trailer Park join to educate the public about the inhumane and illegal mistreatment of residents at the two Rosemead, CA mobile home parks. Residents are calling on the public to assist with finding legal representation and to help hold evil landlords accountable to the law.

Park Monterey y Paradise Trailer Park se unen para informar al público sobre el maltrato inhumano e ilegal que sufren los residentes de estos dos parques de casas móviles en Rosemead, California. Los residentes piden al público que les ayude a encontrar representación legal y a hacer que los propietarios sin escrúpulos rindan cuentas ante la ley.

*** Download a PDF of the transcript HERE ***

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Okay, we can go.

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Okay, anytime Tony. All right. Are y’all ready? Yeah.

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Okay.

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Hello everyone. My name is Tony Vong and I’m a member of the Rosemead Tenants Union. We are a group of volunteers who are helping out tenants that are facing abuses for their landlords all throughout the city of Rosemead. And so what we have here today is that we have the struggles of two trailer parks that are facing negligence. And, abuse for their landlords in the form of two communities. Paradise Trailer Park and the Park Monterey.

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So throughout this program, I’m gonna get the introductions first and then Park Monterey will be

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given the context by Abraham Guzman and Keith McPhail.

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Paradise Trailer Park. That situation over there will be described by Angelus Soto, Martha Mariah, Gloria Rodrigueza and Dario Rodrigueza. And then the conclusion will be given by me, Tony Vong.

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So when it comes to Rosemead, there’s been a wide history of the space maps that’s been going on for decades. So ever since 1986 around 11 trailer parks in Rosemead have completely shut down. So that could have been around like a hundred or even thousands of people that were phased out of Rosemead over the decades. And according to the city’s housing elements, you have in the year 2000 the number of local homes being 404.

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And now in 2019 that number has dropped all the way down to 211.

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And to make matters worse besides the negligence of the maintenance of the living conditions in the trailer parks, you also have these trailer parks being being threatened by the city as well in the form of the Garvey Avenue Specific Plan. In 2018 the City of Rosemead has the Garvey Avenue specific plan, which is a set of guidelines to introduce new commercial spaces and residential areas as well. And in that plan, it specifically threatens to replace

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Paradise trailer park and Park Monterey with commercial spaces and mixed use spaces as well.

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So that’s why we’re here to talk about the situations of Paradise trailer park and Park Monterey to discuss the issues that they’re going through against displacement. And so with that I want to introduce Abraham Guzman and Keith McNeil to speak about the plight of Park Monterey.

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So I’m a resident here at Park Monterey and just recently we were, not all of us, but a good handful of us were served eviction notices from the landlords of Big Island LLC.

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We don’t have any communication with them as to why, you know, we don’t have any manager-president. resident manager present and the property. This is our only form of communication through the landlords and what their efforts are going to be which ties into the displacement of a lot of mobile home parks in the area for the Garvey Avenue Specific Plan.

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Right now the upcoming major event date that we have is that the landlords have a hearing on May 15th and a judge is going to decide whether they can evict us or not. And we’re just having all these efforts in order to gain media support and support from the community to you know just make them realize that you know their efforts whether it is to rezone the area for incentivized commercial use properties, you know, it’s displacing families that have been here for many years.

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Okay, and say in Spanish?

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Yeah, how you doing? My name is Keith McPhel. I’ve been in Rosemead for well, I actually graduated in Rosemead.

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What you’re seeing behind us is the rubble. This is the work that the owner does on the weekend. He knows that the cities and states are closed. So he’ll come in and tear down on a Friday Saturday and finish on Sunday. They’ve torn down a number of trailers and they know they’re not supposed to because they’re supposed to be tested before. So I actually called the air quality control. They came down while they were actually demoing trailer in the front and they said stop what you’re doing. This is a clear violation and they were put on notice that you don’t tear anything down or move anything until it is tested and that was a week ago, I believe and the owner is a very arrogant guy. Gennard? Gerard? No. He doesn’t give us a notice that they’re coming out. The right thing to do is give us 24 hours so we can make sure our cars aren’t parked. We had a car parked in the back over here and they sent for a tow truck to tow it. Right and I wish they would have because they would have had to return it and they’re done.

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Yeah, so and then the guys that are actually tearing down the trailers, they’re not qualified to do so. They’ve actually broke a main over here that caused a raw sewage spillage, right, was running down this driveway. I complained twice to management. They sent out a plumber that was not licensed or insured and he couldn’t fix it so his solution was to run the raw sewage to the empty field in the front where the fires were.

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So they didn’t know that that empty field was kind of out of slope so it can still continue to run down. At that point I called the health department. They came out that day and and things actually got fixed. It’s just you know this owner doesn’t he doesn’t follow the rules. He feels like he’s abolished the law and he could do whatever he wants anytime he wants and you know, I really do believe that this guy is

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everything he does seems to be illegal and I heard a very smart person one time say you got to look at patterns and this the pattern of this owner right here does a lot of things illegal and I’m sure we dug into his business that we would find other stuff as well. With what I said or what he said.

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Just the situation. (Speaking Spanish)

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(Speaking Spanish)

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(Speaking Spanish) (Speaking Spanish) (Speaking Spanish) (Speaking Spanish) (Speaking Spanish) (Applause) (Applause) Before we move on I want to reiterate the order of the program and the short introduction as well. So Abraham could translate it. Is that fine Abraham? Yeah. Okay. So now that we’ve gone through a park montage race issues I want to reiterate that we’re gonna focus on Paradise Trailer Park as well and include their struggles as a united effort against displacement that’s been pulling off for decades now.

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(Speaking Spanish) (Speaking Spanish) (Speaking Spanish) (Speaking Spanish) (Speaking Spanish) (Speaking Spanish) (Speaking Spanish) (Speaking Spanish) Trailer Park for (Speaking Spanish)

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So what’s going to happen is that the residents of Paradise Shredder Park at Halasoto, Martha Melar, and Gloria Regosa, and Dario Regosa will give their testimonies of their experiences at Paradise Shredder Park in that order. (Spanish) Okay. And Halas, are you ready to present and be translated by Abraham as well? (Spanish)

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(Spanish)

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(Spanish)

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(Spanish)

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Hello, my name is Angela Soto. I am a resident at Paradise Trailer Park. I wanted to come here and show support because even though I don’t live here, I also live in a mobile home and we face similar struggles. She says that it’s very sad to come here, even though she doesn’t live here, and see the conditions of how they live with mobile homes split open, beds and plates still filling the premises, and all the trash that surrounds here. She said that she moved here in 1986, and ever since she lived here, she’s always faced struggles with the landlords and how they maintain their properties. And she says that it’s important for her to come here and show support because even though she doesn’t live here, she knows that we’re all in the same place, and if it can happen here, it can definitely happen to her mobile home park and all the residents that live there.

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(Spanish)

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Now we will now make way for Martha and our Paradise Trailer Park to speak as well. (Spanish) (Spanish)

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(Spanish)

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Hello, my name is Martha. She says that even though she doesn’t live here, it’s important for her to come here and show support because she lives in the mobile home park where they also face a lot of negligence, and a lot of, you know, they don’t upkeep the premises, the roads, and it’s important for her to come here as well to show support and make a community strong enough for us to be able to fight for our rights.

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The issues that she’s facing at Paradise Trailer Park is the maintenance of the roads. They’re paying an extraordinary amount of trash. They complain to the managers and they never get any callbacks. They don’t get any replies.

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And the trash, you know, they’re getting charged a ridiculous amount of money for the trash.

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(Spanish) Good morning, everyone. My name is Dario and Gloria.

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(Spanish)

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(Spanish)

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(Spanish)

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(Spanish)

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(Spanish)

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(Spanish)

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So we saw from the residents was a huge crisis of displacement and negligence as well. We’re in Paradise Trailer Park. You see the roads remaining unfixed, the trash costing a whole lot.

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Any requests for inquiries and repairs that takes a long time or even several months to report as well, even for the property manager to respond to. And for Park Monterey, you have a lot of inspections being done without the residents notice. The landlords actively buying them out and issuing eviction notices.

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And also rent increases that are questionable illegal and that they’re being raised above 50% each time as well.

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And so what you have is an active abuse by the landlords, negligence by the landlords.

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Sorry. So we have exactly the abuse and negligence by the landlords of both Trailer Parks.

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(Spanish)

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And it’s also worth noting that at the same time all this is happening, the city is also complicit in the negligence of the Trailer Parks as well. And that you have the Garvey Avenue Specific Plan mentioned earlier, actually rezoning Park Monterey to encourage mixed use developments over here. (Spanish)

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At the same time, you have Paradise Trailer Park being faced with the Garvey Avenue specific plan making proposals and diagrams within that plan that actually proposes to replace Paradise Trailer Park with commercial spaces and townhouses too. (Spanish)

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So you have the trailer parks of Rosemead being attacked on at least two fronts by the landlord and also by the complexity of the city council for development.

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(Spanish)

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However, I also want to note that another facet of struggle is the fact that this is probably the first time in Rosemead’s history where the trailer parks of Rosemead are creating an active coalition to actually stand up against displacement.

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(Spanish)

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So in the midst of evictions, in the midst of negligence, in the midst of active abuse and lack of maintenance from the landlords.

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(Spanish)

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The residents not only, I remember all the neighbors that were lost within these decades of struggle. (Spanish)

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But from this, they also remember their history and also the people who they once enjoyed as friends of families that used to live here as well.

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(Spanish) And for remembering all these struggles and remembering all these memories, it’s these people of Park Monterey and Paradise Trailer Park that are making an active stance in standing up for themselves as dignified people for dignified living conditions. (Spanish)

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So while they require public support from the rest of the public, I also want the public to remember that these are people in a dignified multi-generational struggle against displacement.

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(Spanish) And with that, I want to thank the residents and for all you guys to come here to support the residents today. And I want to open up the press conference to questions now. (Spanish) (Applause)

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Before, it was not in the place because we have a management. But we have started to fight with the people, the owners since 2007. They tried to kick out us too.

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But, then Scott, he helped us because we went to the city. We followed the file over there with the city hall, even Markadev and another council. They came over here to try to help us. They used us because we work for them. But after that, we got help from Aksi. That’s why we are still here. We got some answers. Another one we want because the problem, like they say, is still here. We have flow. We have too many problems. When it’s raining, we have travel because all the dust and the water goes to the corner in the other side too. And the drainage is not good. (Spanish)

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(Spanish)

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(Applause)

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Does anyone have any other comments to make? Any other remarks? What can people do? All right. Good morning. My name is David Arguero. I’m a council member in the city of La Puente. I’m here today in support of the people that are being displaced erroneously and potentially illegally. I think that there should be a clear path. And it’s unfortunate that this has been ongoing for a long time. And I don’t know how it’s allowed for a landlord to be able to do these things that I’ve been hearing this morning from the residents. (Spanish)

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(Spanish)

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(Spanish)

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(Spanish)

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(Spanish)

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(Spanish)

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Okay. Good afternoon, everyone. (Spanish)

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So my name is Stephanie. I grew up down Garvey in the GPP trailer park. We’re here with residents, community members, and the Rosemead Tenants Union. We’re here to say enough is enough.

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(Spanish)

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So we’re here to say, you know, enough is enough. They’re not following the laws, right, that we all deserve. We all deserve dignity. So we’re here to support one another and also understand that this is all part or is part of the Garvey Avenue specific plan. (Spanish)

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They’re going to, you know, create housing that’s unaffordable to the residents, the people that have lived here.

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(Spanish)

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It’s a threat. Gentrification is a threat to everybody here. So, you know, we’re here just to say that we will not be intimidated. We, you know, Roseby Tenet is not for sale.

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(Spanish)

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We’re not going to allow that. (Spanish) So we want to be real about the needs that Paradise trailer park needs because, you know, it’s getting to this. Right now we’re here for Park Monterey, who unfortunately is getting unlawfully evicted. (Spanish)

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Whether they follow the law or not, being evicted is not an easy process. You have to leave your community that you grew up in and it’s not fair. (Spanish)

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We’re here to continue fighting. We’re not going to allow this to continue to happen. Again, Rosemead is not for sale. And, you know, again, we deserve respect and dignity. (Spanish) And so I do want to thank everybody that’s here, especially Rosemead Tenants Union, who’s uplifting these efforts and all the residents and the members. (Spanish) We’re going to continue fighting. Thank you.

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(Applause)

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I want to thank all the people who came up to spoke today. And so what we’re going to do now is I want to move on to what concrete asks and actions that the public can make to support the Paradise trailer parks and Park Monterey issues are currently threatening them right now.

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So I believe that Park Monterey will have its eviction hearing on May 15th where the landlord will get a decision from the judge on whether or not they can go through with the evictions of the tenants.

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So what I urge the public to do is to keep in touch with Rosemead Tenants Union, especially through Rosemead Tenants Union’s Instagram, in order to keep in touch with updates on that eviction hearing and for any possible actions that it will take to support Park Monterey.

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And one final thing is that we’re also looking to the public for support when it comes to finding a lawyer for Park Monterey to also combat the evictions. And also it’s had habitability issues that it’s being plagued with as well.

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So with that, I hope you guys will support the trailer park displacement struggles here in Rosemead and thank you all for your time.

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