Vietnam Veteran evicted from home after landlord dies
By Lauren Pozen
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LONG BEACH, California (KCAL, KCBS) — Vietnam Veteran Dennis Anderson said his former landlord was generous and allowed him to pay a discounted rent for the place he’s called home for 46 years.
“It’s a perfect location close to the hospital, close to the gym, close to the beach,” Anderson said.
Anderson said everything changed after his longtime landlord died in March. He and a handful of tenants received eviction notices, making way for the properties to be sold. They have to be out by the end of May.
“I was in shock,” Anderson said. “I thought she would leave me the house. I added onto the house and did the work. It burnt down in 1996, and I stayed here, living in the garage, just paying rent. Didn’t want to lose the location.”
Anderson said he doesn’t have the money to pack up and move a lifetime’s worth of belongings from the home. He wrote to the estate attorney for help.
“I explained what was going on, living on disability and social security,” Anderson said. “I mow a few lawns. I have a lawn route, but that’s it.”
His longtime neighbors are rallying around him, hoping someone will send him a lifeline.
“This is a person who is falling through the cracks,” neighbor Jill Unze said. “He is a legend in our community. If you have ever witnessed him on Second Street, he used to walk the parrots on his shoulders. He always has his big Newfoundland dog.”
Anderson is taking things day by day, hoping for a miracle.
“If somebody here has an ADU or a little place with a yard, let me know. I am looking,” Anderson said. “I’m getting up there. I am almost 80.”
Most of the other tenants have found new places to live, but Anderson is a different situation.
He has no immediate family in California, only a cousin in Utah.
He doesn’t know how he can leave without ending up on the streets with his animals.
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