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street roots Feb. 3, 2012 BY A M A N D A W ALDROUPE eludes manufactured housing residents landlords must give residents 90 days notice of a rent increase. phrase on the tips of affordable “They can just raise them at a whim,” housing advocates’ tongues when says Herman Kachold, a resident of the talking of ways to preserve Hayden Island Mobile Park, located in manufactured housing parks is a North Portland. “They don’t have to give government regulation and reform that is any reason.” anathema to landlords and the real estate Rent increases at manufactured housing industry: Rent control. parks vary from park to park. Pam “Rent control has been the Holy Grail for Ferguson has lived at Hayden Island Mobile park residents (for years),” says John Park for eight years, and says her park has VanLandingham, a Legal Aid attorney who “seemed to get a rent increase every year.” advocates for manufactured housing Typically, the increase is $10 a month; $120 residents. for the year. One year, however, her rent Rent control allows local government, increased another $35 a month, and the through an ordinance or law, to regulate rent of residents living along the Columbia and control the rent of rental housing. River increased by $55 a month. “That was Governments can thus create a rent ceiling, huge,” Ferguson says. prohibiting landlords to charge rent that is In contrast, Ferguson rented a house in higher. Local government can vote to raise Gresham for two and a half years. The rent the rent, usually in accordance with at that house never increased. inflation as defined by the Consumer Price “There are too many people in our Index. community who are being squeezed,” Advocates say that by controlling rents, Ferguson says. “That extra $10 going to people on fixed or low incomes are able to their prescriptions, toward the electricity, stay in their homes, rather than be forced toward the water.” to move when the rent becomes too high Rita Loberger says the rent of her home for them to pay. in Tigard’s El Dorado Mobile Villa has The state legislature passed a law in increased nearly 33 percent during the 14 1985, amending the state constitution to years she has lived there. Originally, she prohibit rent control. The majority of states paid around $400 in rent. Now, she pays have similar laws, while five, including $650 a month. California, have laws allowing local El Dorado has been owned for the last 10 governments to control rent. years by a California-based company that In Oregon, there is no limitation on how Loberger thinks is solely interested in often rents can be increased, or by how profit-making through collecting rent. “It’s much. The only requirement is that pure greed, but they can do it,” she says. S TA FF W R IT E R ■ COM M UNITY, from page 8 of baptism by fire. o date, CASA has helped convert three parks in Gold Beach, Redmond, and McMinnville. The process of purchasing Vida Lea is expected to be complete sometime in mid-February. Converting manufactured home parks to resident-owned cooperatives is a multi-step process that takes months of work to secure the park’s purchase and enable residents to be prepared to own the park’s land. CASA has a three-person team working together on park conversion: Chelsea Catto, the program’s director who works mainly to secure financing for park purchases; Mary Rose Ojeda, a real estate broker who communicates with sellers and real estate brokers, and finds parks that are for sale and could potentially be converted to cooperatives and Julie Massa, the program’s resident organizer who communicates and assists residents throughout the process. Among the factors to be considered are whether the park is on city water and sewer, or a septic system; the level of deferred T maintenance and repairs needed, and whether there is a high vacancy rate. If CASA thinks the park can be converted, CASA submits an offer to purchase the park to the owner. At the same time, Massa and Ojeda meet with residents for the first time to introduce themselves and explain what it means to convert the park into a cooperative and ascertain whether residents are interested. It’s resident interest that ultimately drives the park conversion process. “If at any point they decide they don’t want to purchase the park, the deal’s off,” Ojeda says. CASA first contacted the Vida Lea residents in July. As with CASA’s previous park conversions, they were initially met with skepticism. “There were a lot of questions,” Blythe says. “They were skeptical of having to go out and borrow money and make these payments. It was hard to Convince them until we actually got the figures down in black and white.” “The more we learned about it and how it worked, the majority of us, I think, became a lot more interested in doing it,” Fountain says. “We could see the advantages to it. One of the advantages is having control over what happens to the park, and being able to SISTERS S is te rs Of The Rood OF THE c r e a t in g c o m m u n ity , ROAD c r e a t in g c h a n g e , t o g e t h e r XX X we ore— » hospitality & friendship » community change through the Dorothy Day Community School » working together for nonviolence & justice » and don’t forget: fun! . Stop by for o delirious meni, Monduy-Friduy. loom - DOpOl I33 NW 6th Ave. in Portland 503-222-5694 Ww w .s is t e r s o f t h e r o a d .o r g “And'we can do nothing, because we don’t have rent control.” Peter Ferris, who is a manufactured housing resident and recently resigned as the executive director and lobbyist of the advocacy group Oregon Manufactured Homeowners United, agrees with Loberger. “Their strategy is to purchase these parks ... hold on to them, do as little as possible (in maintenance) and raise the rent,” he says. Residents that cannot afford to pay increased rent often move, but at a high cost Manufactured home owners could move their home, but the homes are often so old that moving them would damage them permanently. It costs between $20,000 to $35,000 to move the home to another site, money many residents don’t have. “They’re probably going to lose their home,” VanLandingham says, or “sell for a song.” Legislation allowing local rent control has been introduced in almost every legislative session, but failed to gain traction because of opposition from the real estate industry and landlords. “(Rent control) sends a chilling message,” says Chuck Carpenter, the executive director of Manufactured Housing Communities of Oregon, which represents park owners. “It is a signal to the owners that government is better able to determine how an investment should be managed.” Last year’s legislative session saw two bills related to rent control. Ferris worked VIDA-LEA PARK TH ER E ARE NO STRANG ERS JUST FOLKS W E HAVEN’T M ET control our rents.” “The point we try to make to them is that the park is going to be sold to someone,” Catto says. “They’re more than likely to raise your rent.” To be a resident-owned cooperative means that residents jointly purchase the park and own “shares” of the park. CASA wants to have at least half of the park’s households agree to be co-op members as the park conversion moves along. Typically, Catto says, a little over half immediately become members. “Usually, there are holdouts who don’t think it’s going to happen,” she says, and once the sale gets the closer, the number of members nears 100 percent. Park residents form an interim board of directors (a permanent board is elected after the purchase). Meeting at least twice a month, the board’s main responsibilities are with Rep. Peter Buckley (D-Ashland) on a bill that would have required landlords to raise the rent once a year, according to inflation as defined by the Consumer Price Index. Additionally, it would have created a program facilitating a dispute resolution process between landlords and tenants in regard to rent increases. The bill died a quick death. “The Republicans just wouldn’t even give us a hearing,” Ferris says. And Rep. Tina Kotek (D-Portland) sponsored a bill allowing local governments to enact rent control laws for manufactured home parks. The bill received one hearing, and died in committee. Kachold thinks landlords should at least be required to justify their reason for rent increases. “I don’t see the corresponding increase in their costs,” Kachold says, whose rent has increased by $100 since moving to the Hayden Island park in September 2007. “Did their taxes go up? Did they have to hire more personnel? Did they have to increase the costs to maintain the park?” But Loberger can see how rent control could have negative consequences for manufactured home park residents, particularly when it comes to the owners paying for maintenance and upkeep. “There’s going to be a number of those owners who say ‘sorry, I can’t fix that water „ rn pipe because I don’t have the money,’ Loberger says. writing and approving bylaws that set out how the park will be operate as a co-operative. It also gives the board the authority to purchase the park. They also act as liaiso n s b e tw ee n CASA and th e r e s t of the park’s residents. Residents who don’t join the co-op are unable to vote, be on the board or committees and don’t have any say in the operation or maintenance of the park. They are also charged a slightly higher rent — $25 per month more, for instance — that creates an incentive to get people to join. Once the park becomes a co-op, any new person moving into it is required to become a member. “You’re moving in because you bought into the whole idea,” Catto says. CASA updates residents on the progress of the purchase. “It really takes a lot of time,” Catto says. “Residents like face-to- face time. It takes so long to learn, and it’s such a unique process. You’re not just doing development work. You’re doing counseling, mediation, conflict resolution, and you’re dealing with specific personalities.” “There’s lots of questions about the process,” Ojeda says. “We just meet with them as often as needed.” See COMMUNITY page 10 Check out Street Roots Vendor Sam Al-Jondi's new book, "Code of Conduct." Al-Jondi writes about his experiences and offers a fresh perspective about the world we ive in. The books can be purchased at the Multnomah County Central Library on SW 10th Ave., on Kindle, Amazon, and for $10 through Street Roots at 211 NW Davis St., Portland, OR 97209. — Jfc
