residents beg for mercy

As the thought that trailer/mobile/manufactured home parks are big business spreads across the nation, my thinking that blackmail and extortion were against the law is apparently wrong. As park owners and their lawyers back small and large cities alike into a corner, they seem to be allowed to use any methods they deem necessary to win.

In most of the youngest yrs. of my life, I started out in a “trailer park” of about 10 or 12 (trailer) homes lined up across the road from each other on a farmer’s property in North Carolina.  It was one of the biggest and best for it’s time, 10 x 50, 2 bedroom, 1 bath, and we had a big lot. At that time, when my father got a job in town and we needed to move, we just hitched the trailer to the back of the car, left the porch (Florida room) behind, and we were gone.

As I got older and was a real estate professional, I learned they were no longer “trailers”, they were mobile homes, and they were bigger and more beautiful than ever. Between friends and clients that had mobile homes, I could see that if you wanted the best “bang for your buck” this was the way to go. They had built-ins that were beautiful, and no ‘stick’ or ‘site’ house at a reasonable price could match the amenities. Yet as early as the early 80′s I came across a greedy park owner in Milpitas, Calif. that had found a way to circumvent the Mobile Home Residency Law and rent control by offering 5 yr. leases. At that time, if I remember right, the statewide law was that the park could only raise the space rent 5% to a new buyer, unless they offered leases longer than 12 months.

Now I’m back to living in a mobile home as society makes the transition from “mobile homes” to “manufactured homes”. I found the info below on the Consumer reports type website:

A recent survey finds that 19 million people — 8 percent of the U.S. population — lives in 9 million manufactured homes, as opposed to “site-built” homes, as the trailer trade refers to traditional houses.  The average manufactured home owner is 53, with a median household income of $24,500. Eighty-three percent are high school graduates; 46 percent attended college. Why so popular? Probably most important, manufactured homes are affordable.

Of the foreclosures you hear about all over the news these days, the majority are not mobile/manufactured home owners. Those people purposely chose this lifestyle because it was “affordable”. Manufactured homes are better than ever. Along with that is the lack of ability to still be able to “hitch it to your car and drive away”. They are more beautiful, more expensive, and more stationary, than any of  their predecessors. Now that mobile/manufactured home owners are trapped by where they have chosen to live, park owners and their lawyers have moved in for the “kill”.

In our park recently, many of our residents were forced by the park owner      and

Tearing down a home, a history

his lawyers to give up their first amendment rights in order to get a lease that would protect them when the city repealed it’s rent control ordinance. Originally the City had postponed doing anything more regarding repealing rent control. As they repealed it last night, one of the councilman stated they had to in order to protect the residents in our park that were actually offered leases.

What happened here? The park owner and his lawyers blackmailed the residents into signing hianus leases with the threat of pulling the leases already given to a very few park residents that truly needed them (like a case of life of death). Then the park owner and his lawyers threatened the City that if the City didn’t repeal their rent control, they would pull all the leases from the extremely low, medium low, and moderate income people. In the settlement agreement that the people made with the park owner and their lawyers they agreed to:

1. Not show up at the City Council meeting or any other public meeting regarding the repeal of rent control for 30 days (Right to peaceful assembly)
2. Not oppose any repeal of rent control within the City (Freedom of Speech)
3. Not initiate any successful referendum fighting the repeal of rent control within the City.  (California Constitution)

I can’t believe that this is all documented publicly, and they are getting away with it. Even taking advantage of legal services for the poor, with all the budget cuts, etc. those people aren’t equipped to fight this. What’s even worse is the lawyers that understand and know mobile home law are very few. There really is no justice for the poor. This has turned into big business for these park owners and their lawyers. Rents in this dilapidated park for small spaces of dirt, have gone from $2-400 per month to $1300-2800 per month, and that’s just for the dirt people’s homes sit on.

I’m not a lawyer, so I can’t really say this is blackmail or extortion by the letter of the law, but that’s sure what it looks like to me. All this time I was thinking blackmail and extortion were against the law.