Rosa Pizano

My name is Rosa Pizano, and I am a resident of Santa Ana’s Country Club Mobile Home Park. I have lived here since 1993 and have been organizing since 2001.

Our owner raises our rent every year as much as he wants. Last year, he increased rent by $75. They say that they want to increase total lot rent to $2,000. And it really pains us because we cannot afford it. And now that the Santa Ana rent control ordinance has passed, we hope that is going to be enforced, since the owner will only be allowed to increase rent by 3% annually. I hope that Santa Ana can be an example for other cities because we really fought so much for this law to pass, to make it a reality. We are with the fear that our opponents will be able to repeal the ordinance. 

For some time I have told my people that staying silent has very severe consequences. But people are fearful of being evicted so they don't have the voice and the confidence to speak up for the fear of being pushed away. There is a lot of intimidation. There is a lot of humiliation by the manager and fear of evictions. Right now, two families in my community are suffering from evictions.

Having a roof is a right. I don’t like the way things are turning in the country. So many people have no place to live. They’re living in tents. That's very sad. And if this landlord continues exploiting us, we will join these people.

We want respect. We want to be treated without abuse, intimidation, and harassment. We demand fair and peaceful treatment. We demand that we are given the rules and leases in Spanish because everything is in English. We demand receipts of payments. We demand a relationship of trust and the manager’s respect. We demand Kingsley Corporation to be more conscious and treat people more equally.

Santa Ana is not for sale, Santa Ana is to be respected.