LAKEPORT — In the neighborhood of 10 to 20 senior citizens lined the steps and sidewalk in front of the Lake County Courthouse in Lakeport Wednesday afternoon to protest a year of what they said was a lack of progress toward rent control for mobile home parks.
The central issue is that seniors, as well as others on a fixed income, may not be able to afford the cost of actually moving the so-called mobile homes if the rent were to be raised beyond their means.
And according to Anita Sombs, one of the protest”s organizers, all a mobile home park owner has to do is give a 90-day notice.
“We can”t budget,” said Sombs. “Today (a mobile home park owner) can say, Alright in 90 days I”m going to raise your rent,” whenever he wants to. He has to send you a letter.”
“Tomorrow, he can send another letter Well, I really need this ocean-going boat, so I think I”m going to raise your rent another $100 a month.” And the day after that he can do that 365 days a year there is no law that says he can”t.” said Sombs, who lives in the Sterling Shores Mobile Home Park, and says a sudden 10 percent rent hike got her involved in quest for rent stabilization.
She joined Lucerne resident Gregory Cavness, who explained in a recent commentary in the Record-Bee that the mobile home park where he lives saw two hikes last year, totaling a 15.41 percent increase.
Cavness said that the mobile homes are better termed “manufactured housing,” as many of them can only be moved at a great expense.
“We own our homes, but we do not own the land on which hey are located,” writes Cavness. This creates a problem when mobile home park owners either raise the rent or decide to convert the park into another use.
Cavness sat on the landing atop the steps leading to the county courthouse, where the Board of Supervisors meets every Tuesday, in a silent protest between 12 noon and 2 p.m. to mark the anniversary of the day last year when he and other mobile home park dwellers asked the Board of Supervisors for help with rent stabilization.
When asked if he was aware of any action the Board of Supervisors had taken, Cavness wrote on a notepad, “They appointed a task force but one year later nothing substantial or actual has been done. We are still vulnerable.”
An item on the May 16, 2006 Board of Supervisors meeting agenda calls for discussion of a rent control ordinance. That same meeting”s minutes, however, do not reflect the decision that was made that day.
Supervisors Anthony Farrington and Rob Brown are on the board-appointed Mobile Home Task Force, which is designed to have nine members: the two supervisors, three mobile home park owners, three mobile home park residents and one member at large. Cavness is one of its members.
Farrington pointed to a push in the task force for long-term leases, which he said would have the same effect as a rent stabilization ordinance. He called it a “big step” that mobile home park owners represented on the task force had recently expressed openness to the long-term lease concept.
Pointing to a Monday task force meeting, Farrington commented, “It”s curious that he (Cavness) has not once communicated any dissatisfaction on the progress that we”ve made. You can”t accomplish anything in silence.” Farrington noted that he is open to discussing rent control.
Supervisor Brown expressed opposition to the idea of rent stabilization. “Simply put, rent control is a method with which to take the rights away from the owners of the parks. They don”t have the right to make a profit anymore unless we see it as acceptable,” he said.
“They don”t know year to year what costs they”ll have, and some years rent may need to go up more than others to absorb some of the costs they don”t see well in advance,” Brown said.
“If they don”t have enough money to up-keep and upgrade the parks in a nice way, they become rundown and the next thing you know you have a redevelopment area around the lake like we have on the Northshore,” he said.
Contact Tiffany Revelle at trevelle@record-bee.com.
