LAKE COUNTY, Calif. – The group that spearheaded the drive to put rent control initiatives for senior mobile home parks on local ballots – only to have the initiatives later overturned in court – is once again aiming at bringing the matter to voters.
Save Our Seniors, which had collected signatures for the rent control initiatives, intends to bring forward a more solidly drafted initiative and create an association for mobile home owners who live in the county's more than 100 parks, according to Heather Powers, who founded the organization.
In early 2013, the group collected more than 3,500 signatures to place slightly different rent control initiatives tying rent hikes to Social Security benefit increases before voters in the unincorporated county and the city of Lakeport, as Lake County News has reported.
Both the Lakeport City Council and the Board of Supervisors chose not to accept the initiatives as law but instead voted to put the measures on the respective ballots – Lakeport's last November and the county's last June.
However, in early March of 2014 both initiatives were ordered removed from the ballots as the result of a court case, Smith et al. v. Chapman, et al., which was filed in January 2014 by Kerry Smith, daughter of a county park owner, and the Lake County Mobilehome Park Owners Association.
The case challenged the initiatives' constitutionality, with issues including the inability for park owners to implement discretionary rental increases, lack of a rent control board to ensure fairness to both tenants and park owners, and other areas that violated state law.
Lakeport resident Nelson Strasser, who was responsible for drafting the ordinances, argued in their defense in court, but ultimately Judge Richard Martin said the constitutionality issues couldn't be overcome.
Later, Save Our Seniors would again approach the Lakeport City Council and the Board of Supervisors and ask them to take up the rent control issue, but Powers said nothing came of that request.
Lakeport City Manager Margaret Silveira said she hadn't heard of the new movement on rent stabilization.
“There is nothing before the council at this time, not since the court hearing,” she told Lake County News.
Since the initiatives were thrown out, Powers said it's been “a long slow process,” thinking about what action to take next.
“It’s not been off my mind, or anybody’s mind,” she said.
Many of the original participants in the Save Our Seniors effort lived in Sterling Shore Estates in north Lakeport, where tenants had raised issues with the previous ownership, Powers said.
Powers said many of the people who live in the park and were active on the committee have not continued their involvement following the purchase of the park by Caritas Affordable Housing Inc., a nonprofit company that owns other mobile home parks around California and promised not to raise rent more than the cost of living adjustment.
Caritas, according to its Web site, has as its mission and purpose “to provide and maintain quality, affordable housing for persons of low income and means, focusing on manufactured home parks.”
The Board of Supervisors voted in December 2013 to consider a joint powers agreement with Caritas to issue bonds to assist the nonprofit, and to help facilitate the purchase, which Powers said was completed in 2014.
“Everyone feels comfortable here now,” she said, explaining that Caritas holds regular meetings with residents and has placed computers in the clubhouse, along with providing a number of special dinners, including for the Christmas and Thanksgiving holidays.
Powers said she is impressed with the new owners. “They clearly really know what they’re doing.”
The group feels the initiative process put pressure on some parks – like Sterling Shore – to make positive changes, she said.
For Powers and the rest of the Save Our Seniors group that is still active, however, the matter of fair rent for mobile home owners is larger than just one park or one group of people.
“I found the process kind of fun and energizing and exciting,” she said of the effort to put the initiatives on the ballot.
Powers said that Save Our Seniors is now working on an initiative that will be modeled after one in the city of San Rafael that has withstood all legal challenges – even up to the United States Supreme Court.
Like the San Rafael law, this latest effort for Lake County, Powers said, is meant to support rent stabilization for all mobile home parks in Lake county – not just senior parks.
The previous initiatives' focus on seniors only weakened it, said Powers.
This new push will include not just the county of Lake and the city of Lakeport; Powers said they're also aiming to include the city of Clearlake.
Save Our Seniors is now attempting to raise funds to hire a lawyer to take the San Rafael initiative and craft it specifically to Lake County.
In order to raise the funds and get support from mobile home owners, Powers said Save Our Seniors is sponsoring the formation of a new group, the Lake Mobile Home Owners Association.
She said the goal is to go through all of the county's parks, connect with residents and get people to sign up for annual memberships at a cost of $12 for a single person for a year, $1 per month or $14 annually for a family.
If enough people sign up, Powers said the group will have enough money to pay for a lawyer. She said they would love to have a pro bono lawyer, “But nobody has raised their hand.”
So far, they've gone into one Upper Lake mobile home park and interviewed several homeowners, Powers said. “They had so much to say about things going on in their park.”
What they've found so far, said Powers, is many parks don't have clubhouses or homeowners association, so residents don't know each other.
Powers said they want to be able to approach homeowners and share information about the new association, but she said that could be tricky, asserting that management in the parks don't allow that.
“It’s going to take us awhile to get through all the parks, but we will,” she said.
Save Our Seniors has to move quickly, as Powers said they want to have the new initiative finalized and ready to be presented to the city councils and the Board of Supervisors for the November 2016 election, which means they will need to start collecting signatures later this year.
In the first go-round of signature gathering, Powers said they received very good response. “Everyone was so supportive.”
Meanwhile, Save Our Seniors and the new association is meeting every other Wednesday at Powers' Lakeport home.
For more information about the new mobile home owners association and attending meetings, call Heather Powers at 707-263-3580.
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.
Group plans to launch new effort to address rent stabilization in county's mobile home parks
- Elizabeth Larson
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