AARP Foundation grant helps prevent displacement

Posted on by

Use the website link below to see this story, watch the video and download the PDF  resource guide.

Sunrise Park: Rebuilding a Community

AARP Foundation grant helps prevent displacement

 by: Bob Somerville, from: AARP Foundation, April 25, 2013
 
 Sunrise Trailer Court, in the heart of Charlottesville, Virginia, was a trailer park on its last legs. There were 16 mobile homes in a prime location, and developers were anxious to take it over, displace the elderly residents and redevelop the land.

Just as the residents were facing eviction, Habitat for Humanity of Greater Charlottesville stepped in with a plan to redevelop without displacement. With the assistance of a $1,195,000 grant from AARP Foundation, supported by the John W. Kluge Foundation, Sunrise Trailer Court became Sunrise Park, a mixed-income, multi-generational community, complete with a community center and other gathering spaces to turn the area into a real neighborhood. The remaining residents of Sunrise Trailer Court were part of the new mix.

This video tells the story of how Sunrise Park came to be.

http://www.aarp.org/aarp-foundation/our-work/housing/info-2013/sunrise-park-saving-a-community-redevelopment-and-avoiding-displacement.html

What’s next? AARP Foundation has developed a resource guide (pdf, 21.2 MB) that, building on the lessons learned at Sunrise Park, offers tools and strategies enabling both organizations and individuals to transform mobile home parks into successful communities like Sunrise Park without displacing those who can least afford to be uprooted. And at a recent meeting hosted by the Foundation, executives from the top national nonprofit housing organizations came together to think collectively and collaboratively about solutions to the ongoing issue of inadequate housing, and how to create more affordable and sustainable housing for those most in need, particularly vulnerable seniors. Through such partnerships, more Sunrise Parks all around the nation may be just over the horizon, waiting to dawn.

From Mobile Home Park to Mixed Income Community: A Guide and Case Study

This resource guide (pdf, 21.2 MB) offers a case study, checklists and other resources to enable individuals and organizations to follow the Sunrise Park model. Among the key elements for success identified by this study:

  • The community needs to be ready for and embrace the change.
  • Logical and sensible business approaches should be in place.
  • The design should be efficient, flexible and green.

April Eblast – Headlines

Posted on by

There is a new E-Blast for April containing details about the following items -

Leadership Team – enjoyed huge success in Las Vegas on April 17. 

Annual Convention will be held in Denver, Co, October 3 – October 5.

Contempo Marin Manufactured Housing Community, San Rafael, CA. 

Belmor Home Owners Association in Federal Way, WA.

We encourage you to view the entire Eblast, which you can access via the Newsletter/Eblast menu.

You will also find other items of interest on that menu choice.  Please contact us (via the Contact menu item) if you have any questions.

Mobile home residents plead for rezoning in Federal Way (Washington)

Posted on by

By GREG ALLMAIN
Federal Way Mirror reporter
April 19, 2013 · Updated 9:42 AM

The Federal Way City Council voted unanimously to move mobile home park zoning to high priority for the city’s 2013 Planning Commission Work Plan.

The move came at the April 16 council meeting after a number of citizens from the Belmor Park community made pleas to the council to consider the change, among them Mike Nugent and Renee Marshall.

According to the Belmor Park residents, they’re worried that the owner of the park property is close to retirement, and are unsure of what may happen if the owner’s family decides to sell the property where their homes sit.

“We’re promoting the process of mobile home park zoning at our park, as well as 11 other parks in the city of Federal Way,” Nugent said. “That’s about 1,100 residents in this area. We’re promoting this (because) we are owners as well as renters. We rent the property, but we own our homes. The problem is, that if the owner of the land decides to sell the property, we have one year to relocate or move our homes out of the area, and that’s really not an option for any of us…The problem is, if the owners sell the park, we’re in real trouble. We cannot move the homes or relocate very well.”

For Belmor Park, many of the manufactured homes that make up the community would essentially be considered “permanent” homes, with connections to utilities, sewer, etc., which would make relocating those homes difficult and costly.

For the Belmor Park residents, it’s an easy decision for the city. Nugent said that a similar issue arose in Tumwater recently, and that the 9th District Court of Appeals upheld a municipality’s ability to zone for mobile park homes.

“That gives us a little space, that if they wanted to sell it, it would continue as a mobile home park,” Nugent said.

Marshall talked more about the owner of Belmor and the possible ramifications of what might happen if his family decides to sell the park.

“He’s also been in ill health. He owns 20 other parks around the country, and he’s very dedicated to his communities,” she said. “But, we’re so vulnerable because of the zoning…if his heirs decide they want to sell it to a developer that wants to change the landscape, then we are really stuck.”

Marshall continued, saying that uprooting the residents of Belmor Park just isn’t feasible.

“The demographics of the community, the average age is about 68-70. We have about 500 residents there, many on fixed incomes. So for them to start over, it’s just not an option,” she said.

(Pictured: Manufactured homes in the Belmor Park community, located off South 324th Street across from The Commons mall in Federal Way)

Dan Barrett, a Kent resident and President of the Association of Manufactured Home Owners, was also present during the meeting to lend his support to the Belmor Park residents.

According to Barrett, the cost of moving a manufactured/mobile home is quite high, and not something within the reach of most manufactured home owners.

“The average cost of moving a manufactured or mobile home in the state of Washington…is about $25,000,” he said. “That equates to more than $2,000 a month that a resident has to save, (and) most seniors and families in these communities do not have the resources to do that.”

Barrett indicated Kent provides such zoning, along with Marysville and Lynnwood.

“I just ask that you move this to a higher priority to get this issue settled in the city of Federal Way,” he added.

The support for re-prioritizing the issue was unanimous across the council, with Councilmembers Dini Duclos, Bob Celski, Jeanne Burbidge, Diana Noble-Gulliford and Kelly Maloney all expressing sympathy toward the Belmor Park residents.

“There’s a lot of people, a lot of seniors out there. These are their homes, and we need to be working with them and supporting them in making sure they can stay in their homes,” Duclos said.

Celski agreed, saying that he could support the re-prioritization easily.

“We’re talking about people’s homes. Their lives. The places they’ve lived and the place they plan to live,” he said.

Burbidge, Noble-Gulliford and Maloney echoed their fellow councilmembers’ thoughts, with all saying that the residents of Belmor Park deserve some security in the coming years.

San Rafael’s Contempo Marin ruling a victory for affordable housing

Posted on by

Marin Independent Journal Editorialmarinij.com

Posted:   04/26/2013 06:27:00 AM PDT

SAN RAFAEL CITY HALL scored an impressive legal victory in its efforts to protect local affordable housing.

The city’s rent control ordinance that puts a reasonable and fair annual lid on space rents at the Contempo Marin Mobile Home Park was upheld by a federal appeals court.

Judge Sidney Thomas overturned a 2009 district court’s ruling that had declared San Rafael’s law unconstitutional and a taking of private property value.

The owners of the 396-unit park had argued that the city’s ordinance significantly reduced the value of their park. Part of that value, they said, was going to tenants who could get more money in the sale of their mobile homes because of the benefit of rent control.

The 2009 court ruling sided with the owners and enabled the park owner to raise rents.

Unlike traditional landlord-tenant relations, mobile homes are typically not very mobile.

People who buy the mobile homes have to pay rents for space. If rents are raised beyond what they can afford to pay, they can’t just pack up and move out. Typically, they have to sell their homes and move.

In addition, the size of the rents the landlord charged could hurt the re-sale values of the homes.

The city’s rent limits recognized park residents’ dilemma. City leaders and park tenants fought back, leading to Thomas’ ruling that the city’s rent control ordinance does indeed pass constitutional muster.

His ruling is clear and simple. Park owners still enjoy a fair value of their investment while being able to raise rents, although increases are controlled by the Consumer Price Index.

The court ruled that the park’s owners are not suffering “a sufficient economic loss” or an unreasonable interference in an expectation of reasonable investment returns.

A reduction in value is not sufficient proof of taking, the court ruled, citing Supreme Court decisions.

Most importantly, the court also ruled the government can take actions that might result in a diminution in value as long as it is “rationally related to a conceivable public purpose.”

That “conceivable public purpose” amounts to the city stepping in to protect local affordable housing.

There have been many twists and turns in the city’s rent control ordinance. The legal battle has already gone on for 13 years.

Thomas’ ruling is clear, but who knows whether this is the end for this longstanding legal tangle.

What Thomas’ ruling does do is lift a cloud of uncertainty over rents and tenants’ future.

It also makes clear that the city was correct in stepping forward to protect a large and important resource of affordable housing for Marin seniors and our local workforce.

More information -

Florida in the News!

Posted on by

Park folk get their bill

Senator Dean delivers on fair rent solution

By Chris Van Ormer
Monday, April 1, 2013 at 12:00 am (Updated: April 1, 12:01 am)
A legislator has kept his promise to some county residents and introduced a bill designed to help them sell their manufactured homes.

“Everybody, including the legislators, the manufacturers and the homeowners (are) facing the same problem,” said Edward Green, president of the Citrus County Citizens Coalition, a manufactured homes residents’ association. “Senate Bill 1168 that Sen. (Charlie) Dean has proposed offers a solution. It’s a win-win-win for everyone.”

At a town hall meeting in October in the Walden Woods club house Dean, R-Inverness, said he would introduce a bill to regulate the rates and frequency of lot rent increases in manufactured home parks throughout Florida.

More than 1,000 people from across the state had signed a petition asking for “the creation of legislation designed to control, govern and regulate proposed market rent upon the resale of a leased lot rental property.” Dean received the petition and heard the issue from manufactured home residents from Citrus and neighboring counties.

Residents described how they felt trapped with the homes they own because the owner of the land beneath their homes would raise the rent to a new tenant, which scared off homebuyers. They asked Dean for legislation linking lot rent increases to the Consumer Price Index to stabilize a potential owner’s expectation of future rent expenses.

“It allows people that have a need to leave — death, illness or be closer to family and friends — it allows for that to happen, though it still allows for an increase to the park owners as far as an increase in rent,” Green said. “It may be a little bit restricted; it may be a little bit regulated. But it’s fair and reasonable. And it’s also a giant win-win-win for the state of Florida and all of the entrepreneur businesspeople for the trickle-down effect of allowing all the changes to happen.”

Some manufactured-home owners have faced the prospect of walking away from a home that has no buyer, leaving it to the owners of the park, because a lot rent increase stops sales.

“The main intent of the bill is to allow people to sell their homes and not have to involuntarily give them away,” Green said. “This bill S.B. 1168 will allow residents of Florida to sell their homes and generate sales tax and allow them to relocate and allow new people to come in, and when they pay sales tax on coming in, they buy other things.”

Florida has more mobile homes than any other state — 762,227 — or 10 percent of the national total, according to the U.S. Census. According to 2011 data, Florida has 9,026,965 housing units. Mobile homes make up 8.5 percent of Florida’s housing stock. One out of 12 Florida residences is a manufactured home.

S.B. 1168 addresses two types of rental agreements. One is a regular lease that can be renewed and raised after it expires by linking it to the Consumer Price Index. The other is a lifetime agreement.

“In the early days, to entice people to move to Florida, park owners would offer them a guaranteed lifetime rate never to exceed a certain amount,” Green explained. “As long as that person lived there, he would pay that low flat rate. After that tenant left, the Consumer Price Index increase would be too low in comparison. It would not be fair and reasonable to the park owners.”

S.B. 1168 would allow the park owner to offer the next tenant of a lifetime agreement lot site a rate not to exceed the lowest rent being charged in the park, which would be higher than a CPI-linked rate.

“Coming in at the bottom end of the rent range is fairer to the park owners,” Green said.

Since the bill was introduced earlier this month, Green has been touring the state explaining it and promoting it to park residents.

“I’m also encouraging them to contact the chairpeople of the three committees that are scheduled to hear the bill,” Green said.

The bill will be referred to three Senate committees: Regulated Industries, Community Affairs and Judiciary.

Green said the bill will help the state recover its standing as a retirement destination. He said Florida slipped below North Carolina, South Carolina and Arizona. Rent stability would entice more people to retire in Florida and increase revenue.

If S.B. 1168 passes, the law would settle some longtime disputes in retirement communities.

“We’re not trying to be unfair,” Green said. “We’re not trying to be controlling to the park owners. We’re looking at this from every possible aspect.”

Ft. Collins (CO) Adopts Strategic Plan!

Posted on by

After a long meeting last night, Fort Collins City Council voted 4-3 to adopt the strategic plan and move forward with the recommendations presented in the City Council draft of the plan (meaning that they want to proceed with beginning to draft and implement a zone district, extending the notification requirements to 12 months, and owner/redeveloper-paid relocation assistance…the future City Council will be charged with adopting these ordinances).  Even the opposing members complimented the team on an outstanding report and balanced approach.  About 16 people spoke at the meeting (fairly evenly divided between owners/industry reps and residents) and while they disagreed on some of the recommendations, most were happy to be involved in such a thorough process.

East Allen Township (PA) mobile home owners seeking protection from raising rents

Posted on by

By Lynn Olanoff | The Express-Times The Express-Times
on March 26, 2013 at 9:49 PM, updated March 26, 2013 at 10:29 PM

freeman and greenbriar View full size Residents of Greenbriar Village in East Allen Township listen as state Rep. Bob Freeman talks about proposed legislation regarding greater protections for owners of manufactured homes this evening at the complex clubhouse. Express-Times Photo | BILL ADAMS  

Residents of an East Allen Township manufactured home community are seeking greater protection from rising land rents.

Residents of the Greenbriar Village development say owner Equity LifeStyle Properties has been unjustly increasing their land rents, and there’s nothing they can do about it.

Equity is the largest manufactured home community company in the United States and in some cases has increased land rents more than 100 percent in a year, said Randy Schaffer, the president of the Greenbriar homeowners association.

Manufactured home owners have no repercussions to take to combat rent increases, especially if the complex owner steeply hikes rents to drive out residents to sell the land for another purpose, Schaffer said.

“Landowners now have the legal right to price us out of our homes,” he said. “They now have the license and incentive to take our homes and are doing so.”

Greenbriar resident Tom Blackton has seen his monthly rent increase from $374 to $539 a month in the 10 years he’s lived there. Mobile home owners typically own their homes and rent the land they sit on.

“I can’t even sell it now because people would walk away if they found out,” he said.

The residents of the 319-home Greenbriar complex have been told to expect another rent increase starting April 18, Blackton said.

Equity LifeStyle Properties also owns local manufactured home communities in Breinigsville, Orefield and Walnutport, Schaffer said. In one Equity community in California, the company raised rents to as high as $5,000 a month and rents were raised by $200 a month in one Equity community in Illinois, Schaffer said.

The association invited state Rep. Robert Freeman, D-Northampton, and an attorney from Regional Housing Legal Services to its monthly meeting tonight to plead its case. Freeman last year sponsored a bill that gives manufactured home owners more rights if their complexes are sold. He introduced the bill six years ago following the abrupt sale of the Barbosa Mobile Home Park in Bethlehem Township, Pa.

Freeman told the Greenbriar residents that getting his first bill passed was a major fight but that he’s willing to try again to help them get more protections. He said he favors manufactured home owners having similar rights to condominium owners and that mobile home land rents should be tied to the consumer price index.

“It’s the right fight … so we’ll see what we can do to improve conditions,” Freeman said.

Freeman said he’s also been pushing for a meeting with the state attorney general’s office to discuss how the office can help protect mobile home owners’ rights. Mobile home owners also are protected under the state Consumer Protection Act but the attorney general’s office hasn’t done enough to enforce the act’s provisions for owners, Freeman said.

Greenbriar residents say they plan to take part in a national “day of action” protest against their owner on April 17, the day before they’re expected to hear about their rent increases. The homeowners association meeting concluded tonight at 9 p.m. and Equity couldn’t be reached after.

“Many people in this community are living on Social Security,” Blackton said. “People are hurting here.”

Surprising News for Owners of Manufactured Homes

Posted on by

First-of-its-Kind Report Offers Good News about
Mortgage Lending for Manufactured Homes

Report now available for download from CFED’s Resource Directory

More than seventeen million Americans—many with low and moderate incomes—rely on manufactured homes for affordable housing. Yet, up to three quarters of them cannot obtain a long-term mortgage loan. Instead, they’re left with chattel loans that have monthly payments up to $600 or more per month greater than the payments for an equivalent mortgage.

One of the reasons these households are burdened with extra monthly costs is that the majority of mortgage lenders don’t offer mortgages for manufactured homes because they believe these loans don’t perform well. A new I’M HOME study, Toward a Sustainable and Responsible Expansion of Affordable Mortgages for Manufactured Homes, tackles that problem by compiling actual loan performance data—accounting for more than $1.7 billion in single-family home financing—from a variety of sources and analyzing the performance of those loans.

Findings from the report include:

  • A variety of lenders and investors provide mortgages on manufactured homes.
  • Mortgage performance for manufactured homes is comparable to that of similar site-built homes.
  • Some manufactured home lending portfolios actually outperform mortgages for comparable site-built homes.
  • Mortgages for manufactured homes can be made with low downpayments and alternative credit (not necessarily top-tier FICO scores) and still perform well.

The report’s authors, Howard Banker and Robin LeBaron of Fair Mortgage Collaborative, lay out the report’s methodology and findings in detail. The report, published this morning by CFED, also contains a detailed list of recommendations for how to make low-cost, high-performing mortgages more available to owners and buyers of manufactured homes.

Read the report’s Executive Summary and the Full Report to learn why its groundbreaking analysis should be the basis for an expansion of more affordable mortgage lending which, in turn, will enable owners of manufactured homes to save hundreds of dollars per month and build greater financial security.

The data was compiled from a two-year effort which is part of Innovations in Manufactured Homes (I’M HOME), a national initiative led by CFED.

Great News for North Adams, MA!

Posted on by
 
Residents of Wheel Estates applaud the final approval of a rent increase that will allow them to buy the park.

Wheel Estates Tenants Get Rent Increase Approval

By Tammy Daniels
iBerkshires Staff
07:17PM / Tuesday, March 19, 2013

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — The application for a rent increase at Wheel Estates Mobile Home was accepted Tuesday evening, paving the way for the tenants to purchase the 42-year-old park.

Some 30 or so residents of the park broke into applause after the Mobile Home Rent Control Board gave the OK to raise their rent $49 a month.

“At least things will get done now,” said Dennis Campbell of Apache Drive, as his neighbors spoke up in agreement. Others hoped to see improvement not only in the park’s facilities but a resurgence of pride in the lots as well.

“People will have pride of ownership,” said Jeanne Geissler, who’s lived in the park for 36 years.

It took three meetings and the development of a new application form to accommodate nonprofits before the board was able to give its endorsement to the 17 percent increase.

Chairman Wayne Wilkinson warned current owner Morgan Management and any other company seeking to purchase the property that the rent increase was solely dependent on the park being bought by residents.

“This vote for a rent increase is subject to the tenants actually buying the park and any other entity who thinks they’re going to automatically get a rent increase is wrong,” said Wilkinson, who had earlier noted a representative from Morgan Management was filming the proceedings. “It will go into effect the day you sign the papers.”

The Wheel Estates Tenants Association is hoping to close by the end of the month. Waiting in the wings is Real Estate Seekers LLC, which signed purchase and sales agreement for a reported price of $2.73 million with Morgan Management. The tenants have rights to match the price but were unable to do so without a rate hike to cover the cost and another $1 million for long-awaited improvements in park.

The catch had been way the board calculates a fair rate that takes into account the expected profit for a corporation while ensuring tenants aren’t overcharged. The solution had been the creation of a new application form specifically designed for nonprofits, which may well be used in the future as the state is encouraging tenants to take control of their parks.

Board member Joseph Gniadek said he did a marathon all-nighter after last week’s more contentious meeting to crunch the numbers provided by nonprofit consultants Resident Owned Communities USA of New Hampshire and Cooperative Development Institute of Shelburne Falls.

“I have created a new petition that has passed the city solicitor,” said Gniadek, who had the board approve each line item separately. Wilkinson confirmed that he’d also spoken with the solicitor and that the form could be used that night.

Where the for-profit application allowed for rate of return, the new form provided space for debt service, a sticking point in the deliberations of the past two meetings since the new nonprofit had to show the bank it cover its loan debt.

The board approved recategorizing some items and made some minor changes in amounts, eliminating a built-in 3 percent “rental loss” that would cover late payments and evictions, but adding in $24,000 toward plowing based on past figures.

Gniadek suggested that the new nonprofit create a capped repair account to put money into annually as insurance for any emergency repairs.

In the end, the board approved a total assessment of $2,762,770, or 100 percent of value, and total allowable expenditures of $774,028 a year, which between the 187 occupied units accounted for the $345 a month ($4,139 a year).

All the figures used are “hypothetical” and the tenants association will have to come back before the board in a year.

The approval of the rent increase and documentation will be submitted to ROC USA; the tenants hope to have financing finalized by the end of the month. They had until March 27 for an agreement to be in place.  

The park residents were confident the deal will go through and they’ll be able to put their money into fixing up the deteriorated park and not, as many said, “in somebody else’s pockets.”

“We just want to get it back to the way it was,” said Tenants Association President Sandra Overlock.

Massachusetts Community Struggles to Become Resident Owned

Posted on by

http://www.thetranscript.com/ci_22803846/wheel-estates-tenants-struggle-against-clock-purchase-park?IADID=Search-www.thetranscript.com-www.thetranscript.com

Saturday March 16, 2013

NORTH ADAMS — Members of the Wheel Estates Tenants Association are seeking a $49 rental increase as they try to secure a $3.8 million mortgage to purchase their mobile home community by a March 27 deadline.

Under state law, the residents have the “right of first refusal” — the ability to purchase the park by matching a $2.73 million purchase and sales agreement signed by owner Morgan Management and Real Estate Seekers LLC, of New Haven, Conn.

The increase would push lot rental fees to $345 a month, allowing the tenants association to satisfy the commitment being sought by their lender, ROC Capital, which includes the $2.73 million purchase price and $1.1 million for required infrastructure repairs to roads, water pipes and the sewer system.

But to do so, the group must first convince the city’s Mobile Home Rent Control Board to grant the increase — a task that hasn’t proved easy under current ordinances and policies which are geared toward private corporate ownership as opposed to a nonprofit tenants cooperative.

Rent Control Board members expressed their desire to help the association secure the funding during a meeting Wednesday, but said their hands were tied until a petition, showing the need for a rental increase, was properly filed. The board’s inability to act on the request increase raised the ire of some 30 Wheel Estates residents in attendance, who argued that the board’s decision was pivotal to whether they would be able to purchase the park.

“It’s not our job to determine whether or not this deal goes through. We determine what the rent will be based on a petition,” Chairman Wayne Wilkinson said. “We don’t have a petition for a rent increase. We don’t have any numbers we can work with.”

Resident Ray Bass said he didn’t understand why the board wouldn’t accept the increase with so many tenants present.

“We know its not your job to determine whether or not the deal goes through,” he said. “But if you don’t approve this increase, it won’t happen. The people here want you to raise the rent. Just do it.”

Tenants Association advisors Mary O’Hara, director of Resident Owned Communities (ROC) USA, and Andrew Danforth, a representative from the Cooperative Development Institute, who accompanied Tenants Association President Sandra Overlock and Vice President Jesse Martinez, said they had been unclear as to what the board was requiring and had brought both suggested ordinance changes and a petition with them to submit that evening.

“We can’t discuss it tonight,” Wilkinson said. “It’s not on our agenda. The petition also needs to be filed through the City Clerk’s office.”

He also explained that an ordinance change would not meet the group’s deadline, as it would need to be reviewed by the city solicitor and would need the City Council’s approval.

Board member Joseph Gniadek said that he’d be willing to “tweak” the financial formula that is used to determine rental fees, a move that would allow the board to list the monthly mortgage payments as a capital expense and to use preliminary estimates and bid figures. The current formula doesn’t consider mortgage debt as an expense — a major difference in considering a corporate petition and a tenant-owned cooperative petition.

Board member Paul Senecal posed a motion to allow the rent increase without the petition, but it did not receive a second.

Instead, the board voted in favor of allowing the group to file a petition, based on Gniadek’s changes, and meet on the matter again Tuesday at 5 p.m. Should the petition pass muster with the board, they will consider implementing the fee structure for a year, which will allow the tenants association to secure funding and then return with actual expenditures.