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Classifieds

Issue date: December 29, 2000

Rick Saunders lives in a motor home in a Mountain View parking lot. His son, Nickalas, comes to visit during school vacations. @vcredit:Dick Waters

Sue Skinner, a 33-year Mountain View resident, was fortunate to find a house with affordable rent after she was evicted from her residence of five years. @vcredit:Dick Waters

Despite having a well-paying job, Viola Chacon is living in a motor home as she struggles to find an affordable apartment. @vcredit:Dick Waters

Housing dearth hits home

by Justin Scheck

With a rental-housing crisis in full swing, those Mountain View residents who cannot afford the city's rapidly-increasing rents are wondering whether there is room for them in Mountain View.

Around town, people have struggled to find new housing after getting rent hikes that they cannot afford. Some have taken up living in campers while they hold out in hope of finding an affordable house in the community. Others have moved to Sacramento or the Central Valley, even as they continue to work here.

And while some of those who are feeling the squeeze are on fixed incomes, others hold relatively well-paying jobs. But with studio apartments at the going rate of $1,400/month, those without substantial savings have trouble paying for the security deposit and first- and last- month's rent that many landlords require as part of a rental contract.

And for many, the uncertain housing circumstances have resulted in stress and logistical problems that have taken their toll on the stability of their families' structure.

Viola Chacon has spent the past three months living in a camper in a Mountain View parking lot. Chacon, 46, works full-time for $14.50 per hour, but does not have enough money saved to make the deposit on a studio apartment. Moreover, Chacon worries that even if she did get an apartment, she would not be able to support herself and her 14-year-old daughter when the next rent increase comes along.

"This rent situation is horrible, especially for people who are just trying to get their lives together," she said.

Chacon last year broke up with her long-time boyfriend and found herself without a place to live or money in the bank. She removed her daughter from school in Sunnyvale and sent her to live with friends in San Jose.

"We had never been separated," Chacon said. "She's afraid, and I feel so alone and so abandoned. Even if I go to church, I feel like people look down on me."

A technical assembler at Western Technology Marketing, Chacon said that when she initially found the job, she thought the high pay would be enough to find an apartment and settle in relatively quickly. Instead, she is still living in a motor home, hoping to amass enough money to make the initial payments for an apartment as soon as she can find one with reasonable rent.

"You see this in the movies, and you hear stories, but this kind of thing really happens," Chacon said.

Chacon added that she is not alone; there are other campers in her lot each night, and elsewhere in town.

Rick Saunders, who lives in a camper in another Mountain View parking lot, has the advantage of not being a single parent. But when his 13-year- old son, Nickalas, is not in school, the two stay together in the camper.

Saunders explained that, after living with his wife and son as the caretakers of a motel for over a year, they were evicted when the motel owners decided to remodel.

With his brother suffering from cancer (and also living in a motor home in Mountain View), Saunders felt he had to come to Mountain View. "But my Social Security is only about $600 per month, and my wife's salary would cover rent here and not much more," Saunders said.

His wife moved in with her parents in Redwood City, where Nickalas now lives and attends school. The family has been on the waiting list for section 8 housing for months, but has not been offered a residence yet.

And while Rick is able to work a few nights each week at a local gas station, he faces the dilemma of having to live in a place he and his family simply cannot afford.

"It's really been so hard on all of us," Saunders said. "The stress has taken its toll on my marriage and on the whole family."

Other city residents who don't have the limitations imposed by fixed-incomes have also felt the squeeze.

Sue Skinner has lived in Mountain View for 33 years. Many residents know her from her flag-ornamented scooter which she drives all over town. After living in her last house for five years, she was forced out, with 90-days' notice, so that her landlord could make renovations. Skinner believes the landlord decided to renovate so as to be able to significantly increase the $1,050 per month rent she had been paying.

"When I got notice of the increase I was scared, very scared," Skinner said. "I had my dog, and I didn't want to get rid of her. We had no idea where we were going to go or what we were going to do."

Skinner said she was fortunate to find another house that she could afford, even though at $2,200 per month she pays more than twice what she paid on her last house. She said also that many of the people she has met in Mountain View over the past three decades have been forced out because of the rising rents.

One of the groups that has been hardest hit by the rising rents is Mountain View's Latino population. In recent weeks, officials at Mountain View's Catholic churches have expressed concern over the rapidly-dwindling Latino populations in their congregations, as well as the fact that many people who leave Mountain View for the Central Valley still work here, commuting over Altamont pass every day to work at jobs that often pay less than $10 per hour.

One resident of an apartment complex near Moffett Field, speaking through an interpreter, said last week that her rent was going to increase by over 20 percent over the next five months.

Speaking under condition of anonymity because she feared retribution from her landlord, the woman said that she has not found any apartments in town that are in her price range. She added that she does not want to remove her children from the local schools, where she says they have gotten a good education.

"I have not found anything I can afford," she said. "I will still have to work here, but I have no idea where I will go to live after this rent increase."

Landlord advocacy groups such as the Tri-County Apartment Association have pointed out that, while some landlords have gouged rents, many have willingly kept rents at or below market rate, especially for long-term tenants.

Kathy Thibodeaux, president of the Apartment Association, said that, while there is a clear housing crisis, landlords are in a difficult situation.

"The landlords need to be able to make up for the lean years during the good years," Thibodeaux said, adding that, in most situations, annual rent increases of 10-12 percent should be the norm.

But, she said, the only true solution for the housing crisis is to increase the community's housing supply through new development.