The 60 residents of Clear View Court mobile home park lost their rent control protections last September when the City Council caved in to Manufactured Home Communities (MHC), an out of state corporation, and abandoned rent control for mobile home parks in Santa Cruz. In an attempt to do damage control, the council offered to negotiate long-term leases for tenants at fair market value. But what is fair?

In an unusual Thursday City Council meeting -- held in the afternoon maximizing the inability of residents to attend the meeting, the City unveiled its deal of 34 year leases for the current residents of Clear View Court. These leases will replace the "irrevocable" leases "in perpetuity" that the City signed with residents guaranteeing rent control and then abandoned when the rapacious MHC sued the City for unfair practices.

In December, residents of Clear View Court were shocked to get notices of rent increases that doubled or tripled their existing rents with no increase in services. They were simply renting the same patch of bare ground the owners had operated at a profit for years. The City stepped in hoping to help negotiate a fair deal for both park owners and coach owners, and owners offered to forego the rent increases until May 1st if the residents agreed not to sue the City or the Park owners before April 26th, 2004.

The Council discussion continued on into the evening with a lengthy recess. In the course of that discussion, Mayor Kennedy advised the public that nothing he had heard from the tenants dissuaded him from supporting the staff-proposed plan opposed by Clear View Court residents. Emily Reilly gushed that she was on the edge of tears over the tenant's situation, but raised no objections to the proposed "settlement".

The final Council decision was postponed until Tuesday April 27th at 5:00 PM. There will be no public comment allowed, but a large showing may empower residents to sue City Council, begin gathering signatures for a referendum to overturn the Council's aggressively pro-landlord decision, or take some kind of larger direct action.

[ emergency city council meeting was odd and sad I Clear View Court Sell-Out is Tuesday (4/27) at 5:00 PM ]