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
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“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.”
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