LAKE COUNTY — The idea of rent control in mobile home parks continues to be an issue, as evidenced by the 10 to 20 seniors who protested on the steps of the Lake County Courthouse Wednesday to mark a year”s passage without relief.
Lucerne resident Gregory Cavness lead the protest in silence for two hours between 12 noon and 2 p.m. on the anniversary of the day he and a group of other mobile home park dwellers had asked the county Board of Supervisors for help.
Since then, Cavness said Country Club Mobile Home Park now Country Club Estates in Lucerne, where he lives, has seen a 15.41 percent increase in 2006 over two separate rent hikes.
He isn”t the only one seeing rent increases. Bob Lettus of Perks Mobile Home Park now Perks Estates said his rent went up $40 last year and another $45 in April. Part of that was to include the costs of water and sewer, which were picked up by the previous owner, he said.
Donna Spellman of Colonial Mobile Village said she was seeing regular, normal increases until a new owner recently inherited the park. “We got a letter two weeks ago noticing us that they will raise the rent $50,” she said, adding that she”s heard there will be another raise in the neighborhood of $25 to $50 in January.
Spellman noted problems with the roads, driveways, plumbing and landscaping issues needing attention. “It”s just something that we”ve lived with for so long, but to come in now and raise our rent without doing anything doesn”t make sense,” she said, adding that attempts to speak with the new owner, who lives in Texas, have so far been unsuccessful.
Anita Sombs, who lives in Sterling Shores Mobile Home Park, said the 10 percent increase there “started this whole thing rolling.”
What makes the issue precarious one is apparent disagreement over how many people in the mobile home parks would benefit from rent control.
Cavness, Lettus and Sombs represent mobile home owners” interests on a county-appointed task force meant to address these issues. Each said in independent interviews that the issue for seniors living in these parks is exactly how mobile their homes are. While they own the homes, park owners own the land they sit on and have the right to raise the rent in order to make improvements. If rent goes too high, the cost of moving one of these homes may be prohibitive, according to the task force members.
But the two county supervisors on the task force see it differently. When asked if he supported the concept of rent control, Dist. 5 Supervisor Rob Brown said, “I see no evidence supporting the fact that the board should make that decision. There”s been no exorbitant rent increase. They”re trying to find a cure for a disease that doesn”t exist.”
Brown said he”d asked for evidence of the increases at previous task force meetings, and none had been produced. “They haven”t given us the facts,” he said. “Most are elderly people who”ve had their cage rattled unnecessarily with fear of something that won”t happen to them.”
“The bad thing is that you have people like Gregory Cavness who are unscrupulous and are scaring these people into thinking their rent is going to be jacked up so high that they”re going to be out on the street.”
Brown added, “If they want to provide assistance to people who are actually poor, then let”s talk about that. But if they want to provide some kind of socialist protection to everybody who lives in a mobile home park, I”m not for that.”
Cavness said he”d like to see rent control across the board for all mobile home park dwellers. “We”re not asking for anything unfair,” he said. “Most people living in mobile home parks are not rolling in dough.”
Dist. 4 Supervisor Anthony Farrington said while he”s open to the concept of rent control, there is a process the mobile home task force needs to go through first.
He pointed to a long-term lease under discussion, which would allow for cost-of-living increases to homeowners” rents between four and six percent, based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI) for the San Francisco-Oakland-San Jose area. Farrington said the lease currently being considered would lock in rent for 10 or more years, and restrict increases to between two-and-a-half and three percent per year.
“We got park owners to support that in concept, which is a huge step,” he said.
“I have a strong interest in moving forward on the rent control discussion,” said Farrington. “The people that I”m open to helping are seniors that are truly on a fixed income, the disabled, and those that are truly financially struggling. Rent stability is not for people who are financilly affluent. There are some who chose to live in mobile home parks tht are not financially struggling.”
An ordinance that recently went before the Board of Supervisors and was kicked back down to the task force for revision will be on the table at the task force”s next meeting. Called “the conversion ordinance” for short, it would require “relocation and other assistance” be provided to homeowners who might be displaced when a mobile home park closes or is converted to another use.
“Mobile homes in parks are predominantly owner-occuped, often by those with low incomes or senior citizens on fixed incomes,” states the draft ordinance. Another section reads, “The proposed closure, cessation of use, or conversion of mobile home parks to other uses may result in displacement of affordable housing for Lake County residents.”
That ordinance will be discussed at the task force”s next meeting in June.
Contact Tiffany Revelle at trevelle@record-bee.com.
