El Segundo seniors fight rent hike at Park Vista
Residents of the city-owned senior housing facility Park Vista stormed City Hall Tuesday night, imploring the City Council to forgo rent increases approved by the board that oversees the facility.
But more than seeking to forestall the rent increases — which included a 2 percent hike for residents already living at Park Vista and up to $200 per month increases for new tenants or existing tenants who move within the facility — the senior citizens asked for a little bit of respect.
Seniors filled the council chambers, and nearly a dozen Park Vista residents spoke. The audience became so enlivened that Mayor Suzanne Fuentes at one point needed to bang her gavel and ask for order.
The protest emanated from a January 28 meeting of the Senior Housing Corporation Board, a seven-member volunteer body comprised of local residents established by the city in 1986 to oversee Park Vista, a low income senior housing project intended to help senior residents stay in El Segundo after their prime earning years.
Mike Corenmen, a 12 year Park Vista resident, chastised the senior housing board for its “uncaring attitude” and questioned the management company’s survey of local rent.
The board, per its bylaws, cannot raise rent beyond 50 percent of the going market rate for similar apartments locally. The Cadman Group, which manages the facility, conducted a survey which found that the market rate for a one bedroom unit in El Segundo is $1,650 and $1275 for a smaller studio-style apartment.
Corenmen said no documentation was provided for how these numbers were arrived at. “It seems to me the numbers were just plucked right out of the air,” he said.
“The new approved rates,” Corenman said, “were $825 and $637, respectively.” Another Park Vista resident, Jeanette Ringus, noted this represented a $200 increase from current rates and $275 from what it was a year ago.
“This isn’t senior rent,” she said. “Neil Cadman came up with outside figures. Where did he get them from? You could go to any paper and see our singles are only 410 sq. ft. and our largest one bedroom is 610 sq. ft. — there is no way in El Segundo the rent for 610 sq. ft. is $1650 or $1675. That’s just not true.”
Existing residents’ rent increase was much smaller, Corenman acknowledged, but he argued it was still significant.
“Two percent doesn’t seem like a lot, but for a senior on a fixed income, that could be the difference between getting much needed, life-sustaining medicine and not being able to pay for it,” he said. “It could also be the difference of a loaf of bread, or going without food. So sad.”
When residents objected to the increases at the January housing board meeting, Corenman said, the response from some of the board members was brusque.
“One chimed in, ‘If you don’t like it, move,’” Corenman said. “These remarks came from professional people being very unprofessional.”
El Segundo resident Debbie Lee, who said she moved her parents into Park Vista so they could stay close to their grandkids, said she attended the Jan. 28 meeting and was shocked at the board’s “poor conduct.” Lee said she is an employee of a neighboring municipality and suggested significant changes to the board — including tenant representation and better sharing of documentation. Most essentially, she argued that board members should be more empathetic with the seniors they are appointed to advocate for.
“I was stunned by this behavior and found it unacceptable,” she said. “I hope you do too. If they do not care about the issues related to aging in place for senior citizens in our community, they should not be on this board.”
Councilman Dave Atkinson said he formerly served on the senior housing board and noted that there was a larger context for the rent increase — that is, rent had not been increased in five years before last year, and money was needed to address repair and maintenance issues.
“Sometimes you have to do these things,” Atkinson said. “…I know this doesn’t sound good, but we have to have a certain amount of money to operate the facility, otherwise it will go away. The city can’t afford to go into the general fund to run that place, and there’s no place like it anywhere else nearby.”
But he said residents within Park Vista should not have to pay the new higher rents if they move within the facility, and strongly stressed that increases should be handled sensitively.
“It’s not something that is easy to swallow, but it needs to be done,” Atkinson said. “But it needs to be done correctly.”
Councilwoman Marie Fellhauer asked city staff to prepare a future agenda item to address the larger issues of the housing board, including tenant representation.
“In theory, all the people sitting on the board should be advocates for the tenants,” Fellhauer said. “We need to, as a council, make sure they are being run appropriately, and respectfully, for sure.”
Atkinson praised the senior citizens’ participation at council.
“This chamber is usually empty,” he said, noting that their concerns had been heard. “Because this is your home, and you should have respect.”