From: THE SANTA ROSA PRESS DEMOCRAT
By Clark Mason, Staff Reporter
Mar 31, 2008
Lucy Jazzux, a 74-year-old widow, was worried that a looming 70 percent hike in her rent would force her to move out of her Windsor mobile home.
"With the rent increase, plus paying the water bill, taxes, and car insurance, there wouldn't be enough for food," Jazzux said. "I was getting very panicky inside of me, very nervous."
But Jazzux, whose sole income is from Social Security, found out recently the rent increase is being cut almost in half, thanks to a group of residents who fought the hikes proposed by the buyer of Windsor Mobile Country Club.
Residents at the mobile home park, the largest in Windsor, negotiated a settlement with the buyer that will slash the rent increases, enabling Jazzux and other strapped residents to stay. "I'm so glad," she said.
Most residents in the 336-unit senior citizen community off of Conde Lane pay $301 a month for their spaces and were facing an increase of $217.50 in April. But under terms of a settlement reached with the purchaser, Resident Owned Parks Inc. of Sacramento, the rents will increase by no more than $117.50. It also requires the new owner to provide rental assistance to the lowest income residents in the park. Some residents - those with less than $10,000 in annual income - will face only a $7.50 increase.
"We're hopeful no one in the park will lose their homes now," said Donna Helwig, who led the fight to soften the rent increase. "We're very pleased with the agreement that was reached."
"It has ended well," said David Grabill, a Santa Rosa attorney who represented the residents' group.
Grabill said it ensures preservation of badly needed affordable housing at a time when increasing numbers of mobile home parks are being closed. Another trend is conversion to condominium-style ownership in which residents have to purchase their spaces, typically for $100,000 or more.
The settlement also requires current and future owners of the mobile home park to reserve half the spaces for low and very-low income residents and to limit future rent increases.
Maurice Priest, the president of the nonprofit corporation buying the park, described the settlement as amicable and "a good result for all the residents."
He disputed that the original rent hike would have forced anyone to leave, because Resident Owned Parks was committed to providing rental assistance to low-income residents. Priest said the reduced rent hike was made possible by the current owner's willingness to restructure the payments he will receive from the sale.
Priest's corporation is buying the park from longtime owner Ron Wollmer for $23 million, in a deal that is being financed with tax-exempt bonds authorized by the California Municipal Finance Authority.
Wollmer will hold the bonds, getting 5.75 percent interest tax free. When the bonds are paid off in 30 years, ownership of the park will go to the homeowners association.
Residents and town officials said Windsor Mobile Country Club is a well-maintained park. They appreciate that Wollmer has kept rents low for a long time. "Everybody loves this guy and rightly so," Grabill said. "He thinks of these folks (residents) as cousins, sort of extended family."
Windsor, like other cities in Sonoma County, has rent control in its mobile home parks. Annual rent increases are tied to the Consumer Price Index, typically around 2 to 3 percent. But when a park changes hands, the new owner can adjust rents to take into account the cost of acquisitions and other factors. If the rent increase is greater than the rate of inflation, it triggers an arbitration process, which resulted in the new agreed-upon rents. [The arbitration process started when the rent increase was initially proposed last September. After several days of contentious hearings spread over two months, the arbitrator, Andrea Ponticiello, ruled in favor of the residents in November and denied the rent increase. Priest served a new rent increase notice in December and several additional hearings were held before the settlement agreement was reached. The arbitrator approved the settlement late last week. - Sonocondo]
Priest said both the homeowners' association and the town had agreed to the initial higher rent increases of around 70 percent. But a group of about 30 residents led by Helwig objected.
"The thrust was to keep people from losing their homes in here," Helwig said. "The only way to do it, was to get the rent increase down."
She said that there used to be a waiting list to get into the park, but after the sale and rent increases were announced last year, there was a proliferation of residents who put their homes up for sale and planned to move.
Jazzux feared she would have been forced to give up her independence and live with one of her adult children, or try to find a senior living center.
"It would have been a catastrophe for me," she said.
_______________
Note: The Settlement Agreement also precludes the owner from everfiling a condo conversion application for the park unless at least 50% of the residents support such a conversion and includes other protections for residents. The Settlement Agreement [names redacted] CAN BE VIEWED HERE
Friday, March 28, 2008
Saturday, March 22, 2008
New Ventura County ordinance restricts mobile home park 'condo' conversions
New Ventura County ordinance restricts mobile home park 'condo' conversions
The law allows officials to block such plans unless most tenants approve. A lawyer for park owners says they might sue.
From the Los Angeles Times By Catherine Saillant, Staff Writer
March 21, 2008
Ventura County leaders this week put the brakes on so-called condo conversions of mobile home parks, enacting a law that would withhold approval of such plans unless park owners could prove their tenants support them.
The issue is important to local governments and affordable-housing advocates across the state, who say too many conversions could deplete one of California's last remaining stocks of affordable homes.
"Mobile home parks continue to be one of the most affordable forms of housing that we have in California, and particularly in rent-controlled jurisdictions," said Brian Augusta, a staff attorney for the California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation.
Residents of the parks typically own their homes but rent the spaces on which they are located. In a conversion, the park owner is permitted to subdivide the park property and offer each lot for sale.
Proponents say subdividing offers tenants the chance to own the land beneath their homes. But tenant groups and affordable-housing advocates say the conversions allow owners to circumvent local rent control protections and have forced seniors and families out of their homes. Some believe owners suggest conversions mainly to get out from under the rent restrictions.
More than 100 local governments in California have passed laws that limit how much rent can increase at mobile home parks. But under the state's conversion law, local rent control laws become invalid when a single mobile home lot in a park is sold.
Many tenants of mobile home parks have low enough incomes to remain covered by a state rent control program. But housing advocates say the protections in the state program are not as strong as in local ones.
"It is a real problem that needs to be taken care of now before it really does grow way out of control," said Glenn Bell, a Los Angeles affordable-housing advocate.
Last year, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed legislation aimed at closing the rent control loophole in the conversion law and giving local governments more of a say.
A similar bill, SB 900, is expected to make its way through the Capitol this session. But Ventura County's leaders did not want to wait.
Ventura County's new law -- which aims to give tenants more say -- requires a public hearing by the Board of Supervisors if a mobile home park owner is unable to prove that a majority of park residents support conversion. Supervisors can reject an application if that support is not evident.
If less than 20% of tenants support a conversion, an owner's application will be immediately rejected without a hearing.
Ventura's law, which passed 3 to 1 on Tuesday, is patterned after a similar ordinance that Sonoma County supervisors passed last year.
Mobile home park owners went to court to try to overturn Sonoma County's law. The law was upheld at the trial court level, but owners have appealed, said Richard Close, the Santa Monica attorney representing them.
Close said park owners were considering legal action against Ventura County too.
"We believe the ordinance is illegal under state law," he said. "It's meant to prevent subdivisions and conversions in Ventura County."
California has about 5,000 mobile home parks, which provide housing for 700,000 residents. Conversions have taken place or are underway in about 40 locations, including Pacific Palisades, Carson, Palm Springs, Santa Paula, Vallejo and Buellton.
catherine.saillant @latimes.com
March 21, 2008
Ventura County leaders this week put the brakes on so-called condo conversions of mobile home parks, enacting a law that would withhold approval of such plans unless park owners could prove their tenants support them.
The issue is important to local governments and affordable-housing advocates across the state, who say too many conversions could deplete one of California's last remaining stocks of affordable homes.
"Mobile home parks continue to be one of the most affordable forms of housing that we have in California, and particularly in rent-controlled jurisdictions," said Brian Augusta, a staff attorney for the California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation.
Residents of the parks typically own their homes but rent the spaces on which they are located. In a conversion, the park owner is permitted to subdivide the park property and offer each lot for sale.
Proponents say subdividing offers tenants the chance to own the land beneath their homes. But tenant groups and affordable-housing advocates say the conversions allow owners to circumvent local rent control protections and have forced seniors and families out of their homes. Some believe owners suggest conversions mainly to get out from under the rent restrictions.
More than 100 local governments in California have passed laws that limit how much rent can increase at mobile home parks. But under the state's conversion law, local rent control laws become invalid when a single mobile home lot in a park is sold.
Many tenants of mobile home parks have low enough incomes to remain covered by a state rent control program. But housing advocates say the protections in the state program are not as strong as in local ones.
"It is a real problem that needs to be taken care of now before it really does grow way out of control," said Glenn Bell, a Los Angeles affordable-housing advocate.
Last year, Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger vetoed legislation aimed at closing the rent control loophole in the conversion law and giving local governments more of a say.
A similar bill, SB 900, is expected to make its way through the Capitol this session. But Ventura County's leaders did not want to wait.
Ventura County's new law -- which aims to give tenants more say -- requires a public hearing by the Board of Supervisors if a mobile home park owner is unable to prove that a majority of park residents support conversion. Supervisors can reject an application if that support is not evident.
If less than 20% of tenants support a conversion, an owner's application will be immediately rejected without a hearing.
Ventura's law, which passed 3 to 1 on Tuesday, is patterned after a similar ordinance that Sonoma County supervisors passed last year.
Mobile home park owners went to court to try to overturn Sonoma County's law. The law was upheld at the trial court level, but owners have appealed, said Richard Close, the Santa Monica attorney representing them.
Close said park owners were considering legal action against Ventura County too.
"We believe the ordinance is illegal under state law," he said. "It's meant to prevent subdivisions and conversions in Ventura County."
California has about 5,000 mobile home parks, which provide housing for 700,000 residents. Conversions have taken place or are underway in about 40 locations, including Pacific Palisades, Carson, Palm Springs, Santa Paula, Vallejo and Buellton.
catherine.saillant @latimes.com
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