Mobile home evictions moving forward following Phoenix council vote

At the end of an emotional, six-hour marathon meeting on Wednesday, Phoenix City Council members shot down three of four proposals intended to protect residents facing eviction at three mobile home parks, ultimately siding with city staff who said the actions would put the city in legal and financial jeopardy.

The council opted not to approve a zoning change or an 18-month development moratorium for the three parks, two actions that residents and community activists had pleaded with council members to take. It also did not move forward with pursuing a study of mobile home parks throughout the city.

Instead, the council allocated $2.5 million in federal COVID-19 relief funds toward helping the affected families find new housing and asked city staff to research a dozen solutions that staff first proposed in November.

"Those of us who make laws should follow them, even when we believe they were incorrectly made," said Mayor Kate Gallego in reference to Proposition 207, the state law that would likely have rendered the zoning change illegal. "And it's just misleading for us to tell people that we can ignore the law."

Over 300 residents are being affected by the mobile home park closures, which are taking place at Periwinkle, at 27th Avenue and Colter Street; Las Casitas, now called Beacon, at 19th Avenue and Buckeye Road; and Weldon Court, near 16th Street and Osborn Road. The residents are facing an imminent threat of displacement because the park property owners want to redevelop the land for other purposes. While most of the residents own their mobile homes, they rent the land the homes sit on.

Councilmembers Carlos Garcia, Betty Guardado and Laura Pastor — who each represent one of the three mobile home parks — were in favor of the zoning change, moratorium, $2.5 million assistance fund and citywide study, as was Yassamin Ansari.

But Gallego, along with Councilmembers Sal DiCiccio, Ann O'Brien, Debra Stark and Jim Waring, said they did not support the zoning change or moratorium.

The council ultimately skipped voting on the four-proposal package, choosing to instead vote on an alternative motion that included only city staff's 12-point plan and the $2.5 million fund. Garcia, Guardado, Pastor and Ansari voted against this alternative, saying it did not go far enough.

'I don't know where a lot of families will end up'

The council's inaction was a blow to mobile home park residents and activists who have for months been calling on the city to intervene.

The majority of the roughly 75 public commenters at the council meeting voiced their support for the mobile home park residents. Supporters included State Sen. Anna Hernandez, D-Phoenix; State Rep. Analise Ortiz, D-Phoenix; and Julie Gunnigle, a Democrat who ran for Maricopa County Attorney last year.

But others warned the council against taking measures that would conflict with state law and would potentially be costly for the city.

After the moratorium and zoning change failed to pass, many mobile home park residents, including seniors, parents with infants and families with young children, left the meeting in tears.

"This hurts because I don't know where a lot of families will end up," said Periwinkle resident Alondra Ruiz, addressing a crowd of residents and supporters gathered outside the council chambers after the meeting. "But they're not going to break our heart. ... They're not going to break the strength that we all carry inside."

The mobile home park residents now have just weeks to find a new place to live. Las Casitas residents must move out by May 1, while Periwinkle residents have until May 28. Weldon Court's deadline was recently extended until June 30.

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Zoning change, moratorium faced legal hurdles

Not only would the proposed zoning change, called a "zoning overlay," and development moratorium likely have opened the city up to legal and financial trouble, but it was also unclear whether the actions would have kept residents in their homes, according to city staff.

At a council subcommittee meeting on March 6, city staff told council members that the moratorium and zoning overlay weren't viable options. Under Proposition 207, passed by voters in 2006 and called the "Private Property Rights Protection Act," the zoning overlay would have required the city to pay the landowners for the lost value of the land. The moratorium, city staff said, should only be used in cases where the city cannot provide a necessary service for the development, such as sewage, which likely isn't the case in this situation.

But Guardado, Garcia and Ansari approved the four actions at the March 6 meeting anyway and sent them to the full council for consideration.

"If this passes today, I'm not sure what happens next, but I think we have to fight for this," Guardado said during Wednesday's meeting.

But city staff said neither the moratorium nor zoning overlay would prevent the property owners from making the residents leave, as long as the property owners were complying with state law and their contracts with residents.

"Even if we were to say, 'Let's do the overlay and let's do the moratorium,' I think we're giving residents false hope," Stark said.

Tensions flare among elected leaders and speakers

Council members sparred with each other and public speakers during Wednesday's meeting.

Garcia questioned several people who spoke against the moratorium and zoning change.

"What would you say to the families that are going to be evicted in the next month?" Garcia asked Annette Musa, senior vice president of the Arizona Hispanic Chamber of Commerce.

When Gallego, who attended the meeting virtually and interjected on Musa’s behalf to say Musa was clear about her position, Garcia shot back, saying the mayor should let Musa speak for herself. Gallego did not respond.

At another point, Garcia said Grand Canyon University, which owns Periwinkle, and the other mobile home park landowners “don’t care about these folks. They haven’t come to the table because they’re more worried about what they’re going to develop.”

After the meeting, GCU spokesperson Bob Romantic said the university supports the council’s decision to provide more relocation funding to residents of Periwinkle, in addition to the assistance that GCU is already providing.

"GCU purchased Periwinkle seven years ago for future campus expansion and waited as long as it could to expand into that location," Romantic said in an emailed statement.

During the meeting, a conversation between Pastor and Michael Trailor, a representative from the housing navigation company Trellis, which GCU hired at the recommendation of the Phoenix city staffers to assist the families that would be affected by eviction, became testy.

“You seem a little hostile right now as I’m asking questions,” Pastor said.

“Well it’s been a little one-sided all night tonight,” Trailor replied.

Later in the evening, Pastor blasted a suggestion by staff for the city to develop a communication campaign to help affected residents.

“We're in crisis right now. So, I don't know what type of communication plan you'll do. Maybe it'll be like, 'Oh, tomorrow you'll be homeless, thank the city and thank those that vote for you to be homeless,’” Pastor said.

Pastor, in another tense exchange, corrected the way the mayor pronounced her last name.

After Hernandez spoke in support of the mobile home residents, O’Brien asked the state senator if she believed Phoenix should willingly violate state law and risk losing state funding should a state lawmaker file a complaint.

“Yes, I mean, when there’s people's lives on the line," Hernandez said. "If that means going against state law, you have an attorney general that would work in partnership with you. I think there’s less risk there."

Attorney General Kris Mayes sided with cities earlier in March regarding a complaint over an ordinance banning discrimination against renters and homebuyers using government assistance. Some council members have used that decision to say Phoenix should be more willing to press for changes it may have otherwise shied away from.

DiCiccio toward the end of the meeting said what was happening to the families facing eviction made him sick to his stomach. He worried, he said, about how the children would remember this moment and how it would shape their views of their government.

“I’m emotional about this," DiCiccio said, his voice cracking over the chamber speakers. But, ultimately, he said he could not support the measures that go against state law.

Juliette Rihl covers housing insecurity and homelessness for The Arizona Republic. She can be reached at jrihl@arizonarepublic.com or on Twitter @julietterihl.

Coverage of housing insecurity on azcentral.com and in The Arizona Republic is supported by a grant from the Arizona Community Foundation.

Reach reporter Taylor Seely at tseely@arizonarepublic.com and on Twitter @taylorseely95.

This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Mobile home evictions moving forward following Phoenix council vote