Residents of a Santa Maria retirement community — most on fixed incomes — say they are worried they will be priced out by a rent increase early next year from the center’s new owners.

Charles Huffines, who said he was speaking for the 85 or so inhabitants of Laz-E-Daze Retirement Center, a 97-unit complex for disabled people on North Broadway, said the new owners have put residents on notice of a rent hike to $900 a month beginning in January.

“The rooms aren’t worth $900,” said Huffines, 60, a Laz-E- Daze resident for eight years.

Most of the residents, who are 60 years of age or older, are disabled, have mental-health issues or both, Huffines said.

Additionally, most are either receiving Supplemental Security Income (SSI), Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI), Social Security, or money from Section 8, a federally subsidized housing program, he said. There is a 99-year-old resident who has lived for almost 30 years at the former motel, he said.

Huffines said the average rent for most residents is $814 a month, and others have had their rent go up to $850 in the last four to five months.

His rent was $665 in 2000 and the rate has gone up three or four times since, Huffines said. He described his room as 12 feet by 15 feet with concrete walls and a bathroom. Meals are provided three times a day.

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Some in larger rooms pay closer to $1,000, he said.

Despite an average $63-a-month spike in Social Security checks set to begin in January, and small SSI cost-of-living adjustment increases, he said many residents will still come up short.

“You’re looking at 85 people going to the streets with no room and board,” he said. “The shelters are full. Where is everybody going to go?”

Eric Dias, one of three Laz-E-Daze owners with Kevin and Dean Teixeira, said the ownership group took the property over from previous owner Frank Lick in June, and after a few months they were losing money. He described the complex as “run-down.”

Since then, broken windows and a leaky roof have been replaced, and leaking gas and water lines have been fixed, he said. Additionally, toilets, sinks, and faucets — some from the 1940s — and most heaters are being replaced, he said.

Dias said the costs of the improvements have been paid from the owner’s own pockets.

“We’re not trying to pass it onto them (the residents),” he said.

However, Dias said the higher rents are based on an analysis of soaring heating and water bills, and the cost to feed residents in the on-site dining room.

“We’re just trying to make a little bit of money,” he said.

Dias said rent for studio apartments — currently either $814 or $850 — will go up to $900 in January. Three new tenants are already paying $900, he said.

One-bedroom apartments , which are mostly vacant now, will go up from about $1,000 to $1,200, he said.

Huffines proposed an $850 a month rate, as a “medium” between the current average of $814 and the new $900 rate. Residents can afford $850, not $900, he said and the owners would still get raised rents

A member of the county Mental Health Commission and the county Alcohol, Drug and Mental Health Services Department Advisory Board, Huffines said county Supervisor Joe Centeno, the man who appointed him to the Mental Health Commission, has offered to intervene on behalf of the residents.

Gil Armijo, Centeno’s administrative aide, confirmed Thursday the 5th District supervisor will be meeting with Laz-E-Daze residents on Monday to discuss their plight.

“We are definitely going to do whatever it is that we can,” Armijo said.

Although Laz-E-Daze is inside the jurisdiction of the city of Santa Maria, many of the residents are under state programs administered by the county, Armijo said.

Joanne Brindley, 54, has lived at Laz-E-Daze for almost two years. Her rent has gone up three times in that span, she said. She pays $529 of her $814 a month rent, and Section 8 pays the rest, she said. An $850 a month rate is more reasonable than $900, she said.

The biggest issue for residents are Social Security increases that aren’t enough to cover the rent hikes, said Brindley, who has multiple sclerosis.

“It’s going to be very, very, sad because a lot of people are going to be homeless,” she said.

At least one resident is preparing to leave by next month.

Jane Davidson, 63, who has lived at Laz-E-Daze for four years, is moving out Dec. 3 to another place in Santa Maria.

The new owners are “trying to improve life here,” Dias said and they’d “hate to see anybody leave.”

“If we weren’t bringing it up to standards, we would close down,” he said “Nobody would live here. We’re trying to help the majority rather than the minority.”

November 23, 2008