Page 2: Rent Control Bill for Manufactured Home Communities to be Heard April 1 (News Release)

Visit our website at www.mhclosure.com 3/30/2009 For Immediate Release… For more information, contact Peter Ferris at 541-272-1648

Rent Control Bill for Manufactured Home Communities to be Heard April 1

OMHU has scheduled a rally on the Capitol steps noon Wednesday and has urged homeowners statewide to attend in support of HB 3196, a bill that limits rents. The House Consumer Protection Committee will conduct a hearing on the legislation, sponsored by Rep. Peter Buckley (D-Ashland) and Senator Monnes Anderson (D-Gresham) at 3 p.m. in Hearing Room E.

OMHU Lobbyist Peter Ferris explained the dire dilemma facing homeowners: “Our polling of 20 parks across the state indicates a majority of landlords have raised rents twice to five times the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rate over the past five years. Many of these communities are operated by out-of-state landlords who do the bare minimum in maintaining our communities and providing us service. With the current, deepening recession, many of our seniors and working class families have reached the tipping edge and are now having to play triage with their food, medicines, utilities, and rent.”

HB 3196 brings a level playing field to State statute by solving two problems for both parties. It limits the landlord’s ability to increase rents beyond the Consumer Price Index (CP!) while providing for binding arbitration of grievances when the two parties have disputes. Another provision allows landlords to increase rent for a period of time for capital improvements but then requires them to lower that increase after the improvements are paid for.

Currently landlords may raise rents without any limit with a 90-day notice. Ferris continued: “When rents are increased, the value of our homes goes down. Some landlords have raised rents as a way to coerce and control residents. What we need is real regulation of these communities, akin to what Americans want to see happen on Wall Street today.”

Under HB 3196, the Department of Housing and Community Services (OHCS) would continue their mediation program while implementing a new mandatory arbitration one to resolve issues if one of the parties still feels aggrieved. The costs of the arbitration would be funded by landlords’ being assessed a $6 fee per occupied unit in their parks. Currently, the 100,000 residents statewide fund the mediation program through a similar fee.

Landlords will also have a right to appeal, on a temporary basis, the limits imposed by the legislation. The Department will establish criteria for what is considered to be a “fair return” on investment. The challenge will be while parks have traditionally been view as guaranteeing solid, steady returns, the recent lack of liquity and mismanagement by some landlords will have to be dealt with.

Ferris concluded: “We’re getting a very favorable response to this bill from homeowners around the state who have drafted petitions and contacted their legislators. The real solution to this problem is by empowering residents to stand up and work with the landlords to solve their mutual grievances.”

Oregon Manufactured Homeowners United (OMHU) Visit our website at www.mhclosure.com

HB 3196, House Consumer Protections

Community	City
1. HeritageVillage Cal-Am, CA	Beaverton	F*/447/	$682	21.4%
2. Royal Villas Cal-Am, CA	Tigard	S*/243/$508	$685	34.8%
3. Olde Stone Village Paul Brewer, CA	McMinnville	F/194/$320	$390	21.9%
4. Big Valley Woods Brian Fitterer, CA	Boring	F/239/$415	$575	38.6%
5. Clairmont Richard Delaney, OR	Oregon City	F/189/$501	$586	17.0%
6. Meadow Creek Village Weslee Prop., OR	Dallas	F/100	$407	11.5%
7. Bayview Scott Hess, WA	Waldport	F/62/$315	$385	29.7%
8. Riverbend Dan/Clifton Laskey, OR	Reedsport	S/120/$301	N/A	N/A
9. Briarwood NA*, CA	Eugene	S/249/$357	$403	12.9%
10. Chalet Village Brian Fitterer, CA	Springfield	S/123/$360	$425	18.1%
11. Saddle Butte Sid Leiken Sr.	Roseburg	F/297/$250	$395	58%
12. Suntree Village Newman, Larkin &	Bend	S/223/$331	$400	20.9%

Studebaker
*F=family park, S=senior park, NR=not registered CPI average 2004-08 (Portland): 11.2%

Community City #of spaces/04 rent 08/09rent % change vs. 11.2% CPI

13. Century Drive Bend F/71/$290 $370 27.6%

M. Montagner, OR

14. Meadow View Estates Medford F/108/$308 $422 37.0% Invest. Properties, OR

15. Butte Crest	Eagle Point	F/123/$320	$425	32.8%
Follett, CA
16.Greenway Village
NA	Phoenix	S/55/$270	$320	18.5%
17. Creekside Estates	Phoenix	F/213/NA	NA	NA
18. Bear Lake	Phoenix	S/210/NA	NA	NA
19. Leisure Day	Shady Cove	S/49/$342	$448	31%
Vicki Coons, OR

Analysis: This data has been collected over the past five months from homeowners and represents the only research that I am aware of regarding rents in Oregon. When I started this, I believed we would see corporate, out-of-state landlords in the vanguard for raising rents. The data collected dispels this notion, although a few of the “mom and pop” landlords earn high marks for keeping down rents in this sample.

This is not a random sample of landlords. It is probably skewed toward those landlords willing to raise rents as most homeowners who felt especially aggrieved sent in their data. This is good reason, as directed in our legislation, to learn more—if we don’t know what’s happening on the ground, how can we regulate this industry effectively?What also remains a mystery is why many landlords continue to raise rents so high given that we see a trend that homeowners are “self-evicting” themselves because they cannot afford to remain in their communities Unfortunately, the landlords do not accurately report the number of vacancies in their parks to OHCS as required by sections 2-4 of Chapter 619.

The question then is: Why, given the current collapsed housing market, are these landlords increasing rents when it has a direct, negative impact on their bottom line? Given the increased unemployment and limited income of many in these communities statewide, it makes little sense.

Peter Ferris, Executive Director/Lobbyist