Caltrans Tenants Claim Agency Blocking Them From Buying Homes

Tenants living in state-owned homes along the long-abandoned Interstate 710 corridor have filed a lawsuit accusing the California Department of Transportation (Caltrans) of illegally blocking low-income residents from buying the homes they have occupied for decades.

The case could affect hundreds of occupied Caltrans-owned homes along the former freeway corridor, including properties within Pasadena city limits.

The lawsuit challenges regulations adopted by Caltrans in August that tenants claim impose minimum income requirements that disqualify many residents from purchasing their homes under the Roberti Act, a 1979 state law governing the sale of surplus freeway properties.

At a news conference in El Sereno, attorneys representing tenants from Pasadena, South Pasadena and El Sereno said the new rules contradict the law’s core requirement that homes be sold to existing occupants at prices affordable to them.

“These regulations make it impossible for low-income residents to access their rights under the Roberti law by imposing minimum income requirements,” said attorney Mitchell Tai, whose office filed the lawsuit on behalf of several tenants.

The homes were originally acquired by the state for a proposed extension of the 710 Freeway that was formally abandoned in 2019.

Tenants say Caltrans allowed the properties to deteriorate over decades while residents waited for the land to be released for sale.

Under the Roberti Act, Caltrans is required to repair the homes before selling them to existing tenants, while outside buyers must assume the cost of rehabilitation. The lawsuit alleges the new regulations are designed to sidestep that obligation by disqualifying current occupants.

Tenants at the news conference described denials without clear notice, breakdowns in communication and what they characterized as intimidation of elderly and disabled residents during the sales process.

“We deserve transparency. We deserve fairness, and we deserve to be treated with basic respect, not deceived during a process that determines our futures of our home,” said one longtime Caltrans resident that has been denied the opportunity to purchase their home.