Bills in Legislature could affect mobile home sales

By Jessica Smith, ,Mail Tribune

Manipulative salespeople, unfair lending practices and retaliatory landlords mean trouble in the manufactured housing industry.

A report from state Attorney General Hardy Myers and some 20 bills introduced this year in the Oregon Legislature could mean big changes for people who make, sell and buy manufactured homes.

"Certainly, this is the session where legislators are going to know there’s a real problem in the manufactured housing industry," said Jan Margosian, a spokeswoman for the attorney general’s office. "There’s a big imbalance of power between the consumer and the industry. We just want to get that in sync."

A task force of more than 150 representatives from every sector of the manufactured housing industry — factories, retailers, lenders and consumers — worked more than a year to identify imbalances in the trade.

"The consumers out there today don’t know who to trust," said Tom DeMille, owner of American Mobile Homes in White City.

Abusive lenders and dealers have damaged the reputation of an industry that’s filled with hardworking people, said DeMille, who participated in the task force.

"I totally understand the problems," he added. "But some of us are just trying to sell something that’s affordable."

From the task force’s work, state officials learned, among other things, that some dealers and lenders fail to disclose the real costs associated with buying a manufactured home, including move-in costs and interest rates.

Though Myers’ report prompted the introduction of seven bills to the Legislature, the fact that individual lawmakers have proposed a slew of bills themselves may mean only the most pressing problems in the manufactured housing industry will be addressed this session.

None of the bills address problems mobile home owners have after the sale — particularly what happens when park owners tell them to leave so the land can be sold or converted into something more profitable. In that instance, state law requires park owners to give a year’s notice and pay residents $3,500 — a fraction of the typical cost to move a mobile home.

According to Margosian, the attorney general’s office is expected to push for four of the proposed bills:

ä HB 3684 — Creates a standardized sales contract and requires manufactured home dealers to use it.

ä HB 2702 — Requires anyone selling a manufactured home to disclose all costs associated with placing a unit in a park.

ä HB 3917 — Identifies illegal trade practices involving the sale of manufactured dwellings and establishes penalties for violations.

ä HB 3691 — Establishes a task force to develop a program for licensing and regulating manufactured housing dealers and salespersons.

To review drafts of these and other bills, visit the Legislature on the Web at www.leg.state.or.us. For a copy of Myers’ report on manufactured housing, visit the attorney general’s office at www.doj.state.or.us on the Web.

Manor’s plans have its mobile home tenants worrying

Mail Tribune / Bob Pennell

Helen Schaffran has lived in the Crest Imperial Mobile Estates park for 26 years and has no plans to move. She says she isn’t going to let the Rogue Valley Manor, her landlord, force her to move when the Manor makes way for a new hotel on the land where her single-wide sits.

Helen Schaffran had no plans to pack up and move.

More than a quarter-century ago, she and her husband, Al, settled into the quiet mobile home park on Ellendale Drive and decided to make it their home.

When her husband died two years ago, Schaffran stayed put. She said she’d never abandon the memories living inside the 26-year-old single-wide.

But for Schaffran and the 50 families living in Crest Imperial Mobile Estates, packing day is coming.

A hotel will one day stand where their homes sit.

Residents at Crest Imperial — and two threatened courts in Ashland — have found themselves in a predicament that makes clear the dilemma mobile home dwellers face when a park owner decides to sell or convert the land.

The Pines Mobile Home Park and the Lower Pines park in Ashland appear to be safe for now — plans to build a bank at one site have been withdrawn and an Ashland landlord purchased the other park, promising to preserve it as affordable housing. But Lower Pines’ owner just announced a 67 percent hike in residents’ rent.

The big question for Crest Imperial residents — where will we go? — is complicated by tight wallets, a limited supply of affordable housing and local zoning policies that make it nearly impossible to move a mobile home.

Worried the park’s pending closure is a sign of things to come, residents and others say it’s time to think about ways to protect mobile home owners and preserve a type of housing that meets the needs of families living on low and fixed incomes.

Losing more than a home

Ceramic pigs and frogs perch on shelves and lounge on table tops, dozens of magnets stick to the goldenrod refrigerator and boxes of bowling trophies sit in a spare bedroom in Schaffran’s home.

"Forty years of gathering and they want to take it all away," she said, her frustration made clear by the scowl fixed to her face. "That’s what is hurting."

At 67, Schaffran said she’s scared to think what will happen when the Rogue Valley Manor moves ahead with its plan to turn the Crest Imperial site into a hotel and conference center.

The Manor, which won the city’s approval for the project in February, is required by Oregon law to give park residents a year’s notice before it plans to close the court or pay moving costs up to $3,500 per home owner. Manor representatives say they have no definite timeline for construction of the hotel.

"The residents are obviously concerned about their future, and we are, too," said Brian McLemore, executive vice president of development for Pacific Retirement Services, the Manor’s parent company. "But we think it’s premature to give notice to residents when we have no immediate plans to develop."

It could be 10 to 20 years before the Manor moves ahead with a project as complicated as a hotel and conference center, McLemore added.

"Until we have a plan to develop the property, we don’t have a plan to address the relocation issues," he said. "For us to put together that plan ... is just a waste of time at this point."

The Manor has encouraged Schaffran and other Crest Imperial residents to apply for its low-income and senior housing, but Schaffran and her neighbors resist the idea of moving into subsidized apartments.

"You have to give up your laundry, you have to give up your deep freeze ... you have to give up a lot," Schaffran said. "I don’t want low-income housing. I want my home."

Though Schaffran owns her mobile outright, she said she’s in the same spot as many of the families who reside in older units.

Living in homes built in the 1970s and ’80s, a number of Crest Imperial families are paying mortgages on something they can’t move or sell.

They stand to lose more than their homes. They may be out thousands of dollars.

"It just plain old hurts"

Residents in Crest Imperial estimate that as many as 80 percent of their neighbors are elderly, disabled or both. They live on fixed incomes. Some say they’re forced at times to decide between buying food or heating their homes.

Park resident Ron Heath, who survives on $407 a month, said he’s prepared to make tough choices to keep expenses down and remain in his home. Next winter, he may resort to sleeping in his closet with a ceramic heater.

"Whatever it takes," Heath said, "I’ll do it."

The idea that it may cost thousands of dollars to move their mobiles has Heath, Schaffran and other park residents wondering whether they’ll be forced to walk away from their homes.

"It just plain old hurts," Schaffran said. "I’ve cried buckets of tears over it."

Moving costs can be as high as $10,000, according to David Kaufman, manufactured home ombudsman for the Oregon Housing and Community Services division.

"These are people who generally don’t have that kind of money," said Kaufman. "It’s a real problem."

Aside from the cost to move, residents at Crest Imperial have learned their homes may not be as mobile as they thought.

County and most city ordinances relegate mobile homes to mobile home parks, according to Joline Thomas, Southern Oregon vice president for Manufactured Home Owners of Oregon, a group that represents park tenants.

But where there are vacancies, most park owners have put restrictions on the age of mobile homes allowed in, Thomas said. Some parks won’t accept homes built more than five or 10 years ago, she added.

"The problem with the industry right now is (owners of older homes) have no place to go," Thomas said. "So they’re left holding the bag."

When homeowners can’t move or sell their units, they frequently abandon them, according to Kaufman. Others try to dismantle their homes, selling it piece-by-piece for scrap.

Making a bad situation worse

No one knows what effect the closure of Crest Imperial will have on the Rogue Valley’s stock of affordable housing.

But it can’t help matters, said Betty McRoberts, who sits on Medford’s affordable housing coalition and oversees development for the Housing Authority of Jackson County.

"This just puts that many more people into the affordable housing market and we already know there’s not enough," McRoberts said. "It’s a bad situation, and this is going to make it worse."

Information on the stock of affordable housing in Jackson County is not readily available. But at the housing authority, which administers federal programs, more than 1,500 families are on a waiting list. It can take up to a year to place a family once it makes the list, McRoberts said.

Some local communities are beginning to search for ways to preserve and augment their affordable housing.

In Medford, the City Council formed a housing coalition to identify ways to encourage lower-income families to purchase homes. The fledgling Ashland Community Land Trust builds housing specifically for low-income families.

But while these cities and other organizations — including Habitat for Humanity, ACCESS and the Rogue Valley Community Development Coalition — are busy building new homes, it would take years to offset the loss of 50-plus mobile units at Crest Imperial.

Looking for a solution

As frustrated as Schaffran and her neighbors are by their situation, they say they really want communities to begin looking for ways to assist displaced mobile home owners.

"This can be a reality for anyone that’s in a park," said Jeanielynn Russell, who moved to the Crest Imperial court a couple years ago.

As land within Medford and other urban areas becomes more scarce, owners of mobile home parks are likely to begin converting their property to a more profitable use, industry watchers say.

Russell and her neighbors point to laws like one in California, which requires developers to evaluate the economic impact a park conversion will have on residents, as an example for Oregon to follow.

People might say, "That’s California, we’re in Oregon," said Russell. "It can be an irrelevant issue. But they do it in California because it’s the right thing to do. It’s the fair thing to do."

The California law, adopted in 1981, permits local jurisdictions to require park owners and developers to pay relocation costs for displaced mobile home owners.

A similar law in Oregon would likely face opposition from at least two groups — Manufactured Housing Communities of Oregon and Oregon Manufactured Housing Association, which represent manufactured home builders and park owners.

Representatives from those groups say local jurisdictions should relax zoning rules that restrict the placement of mobile homes — allowing owners to move their units outside parks — rather than burden developers or court owners with paying relocation costs.

"If the home is in good condition, why shouldn’t you be able to move it?" asked Don Miner, executive director for the Manufactured Housing Association. "It’s an arbitrary line that has been drawn, and it inflicts harm on the consumer."

Several bills meant to protect mobile home buyers were introduced in the Legislature this year, but none addressed the effect a park closure has on residents.

The debate over whether mobile home dwellers should be compensated when a park closes is one that rests for now with court owners and residents.

Rich Rohde, an Oregon Action organizer who’s worked with people from Crest Imperial and two parks in Ashland, said mobile home park owners should seek out a "fair and just way" to deal with displaced residents, whether it be through relocation assistance, compensation for the loss of homes or some other type of aid.

"If everybody sat down with good intentions, you could come up with a solution that’s good for everyone."

Reach reporter Jessica Smith at 776-4481, or e-mail jsmith@mailtribune.com