LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – Proponents of two rent control initiatives for senior mobile home parks are continuing to gather the needed signatures to place the measures on local ballots.
Lakeport resident Nelson Strasser and the Save Our Seniors Committee are working to put the measures on ballots in Lakeport and the county, respectively, as Lake County News has reported.
The measures, which differ slightly in their language, would govern how rent could be increased in senior parks.
The Lakeport measure defines such parks as where there is one inhabitant age 65 or older in 80 percent of the homes, while the county measure requires that 80 percent of the homes in a senior park have at least one person over age 55.
Both measures would roll back all rental rates to Jan. 1, 2012, and would require that rent hikes be based on the percent of Social Security benefit increases.
Since beginning signature gathering about a month and a half ago, the process has gone well, according to Strasser.
Of the 415 signatures needed to qualify for Lakeport's ballot, they had collected approximately 389 as of Wednesday, according to Strasser, who is tabling every day around the city of Lakeport.
The deadline to collect signatures for the Lakeport measure is July 1, and by that point Strasser said he hopes to have close to 500 signatures to cover any signatures that turn out to be ineligible.
The Lake County Registrar of Voters Office said a minimum of 2,115 signatures must be gathered by mid-October to qualify the county measure for the ballot.
Strasser said that, so far, the proposed county measure has more than 1,500 signatures.
“It seems incredible that a tiny band of volunteers, six or seven core people, could pull this off,” he said.
Strasser said local citizens' empathy and consciences has been the strongest support for the measures.
“This effort is the epitome of grass roots democracy,” he said.
If the measures get the needed number of signatures, Strasser's measure could get on November's ballot in Lakeport, but the county measure likely would go on the June 2013 ballot.
For more information contact Strasser at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. .
Email Elizabeth Larson at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. . Follow her on Twitter, @ERLarson, or Lake County News, @LakeCoNews.