The Irvine City Council approved a $500,000 budget to assist with repairs for the Meadows Resident Assistance Program on Oct. 8.
The Meadows in Irvine is a 55 and older mobile home park for seniors located on Jeffrey Road, with certain units allocated for low-income residents. The Jamboree Housing Corporation acquired the park in 1998 and continues to manage it.
In May 2024, Irvine City staff inspected the mobile park and found that most units needed minor repairs to meet California Health and Safety Code regulations. The staff then recommended the establishment of the Meadows Resident Assistance Program with a budget of no more than $500,000.
However, there was some disagreement within Irvine City Council on whether to approve the budget.
“I don’t believe that it’s the city that should be doing the disbursement,” councilmember Tammy Kim said during the council meeting, as she is “not sure what specific criterias are going to be used to ensure that the grant funds are effectively used.”
City Manager Oliver C. Chi responded in support of the budget.
“[This] was a direction from council that we develop a program,” Chi said. He clarified that the proposed assistance program is “a replication of a program that existed previously, through the One Irvine program.”
One Irvine, a neighborhood revitalization program, offers grants and loans to improve Irvine neighborhoods. It offers its resources to owners of single-family homes and condominiums built in or before 1975. Grants and loans are given to the owners by the city of Irvine and are paid back directly to the city.
Through this, the establishment of a system and reimbursement process was implemented for residents in The Groves, another senior mobile home park in Irvine.
Chi referenced The Groves while advocating funding for The Meadows.
“We would replicate that using these new sources of funding for The Meadows,” Chi said in response to Kim’s concerns. “We do think this program is fairly simple to execute given the past experience we’ve had through One Irvine.”
After more than 15 minutes of debate, Mayor Farrah Khan closed the discussion.
“[It’s] a great way for us to help our residents out just like the One Irvine program at The Grove. It’s city money that’s going to be handled by the city for our residents, so I’m in all support of it,” Khan said.
The budget was approved unanimously.
Irvine is no stranger to disagreements with its housing conditions. In 1979, Irvine Meadows opened to students on the campus of UC Irvine, renting land to house students in trailer homes. The trailer park grew increasingly popular with residents as an unconventional and affordable university housing community.
However, in 1999 UCI administration announced Irvine Meadows would be shut down in five years to turn the area into a parking lot by 2004. The announcement was met with much criticism from students, prompting protests in hopes of a decision reversal — nine students blocked the path of a truck coming to obtain soil samples.
Campus police arrested the nine individuals and demolished the trailer park.
Decades after the university navigated its own mobile home park concerns, the city council created plans to take effect for the Irvine Meadows mobile home park. Once plans are created, repairs will be completed by summer 2025, according to Chi. Repairs will be approved for up to $5,000 per coach and grant money will be given directly from the city to the residents.
Noosha Taghdiri is a News Intern for the fall 2024 quarter. She can be reached at taghdirn@uci.edu.
Edited by Victoria Le.