Rents through the roof

Most of them live on fixed incomes, in tidy single-wide trailers where friends gather under metal carports to swap stories or a cup of sugar.

As far as Pat Rose is concerned, her 29-year-old mobile home isn't much to look at, but for 12 years, it's been home.

On Monday, Rose was wondering how much longer she'd be able to call the place her own.

Last week, Rose and the 104 households at the Grass Valley Mobile Home Park off Highway 49 were given notice that their rents would be increasing in January by $100 a month - from $350 to $450. For the first time, residents will be asked to sign two, five- or 10-year leases.

Those that sign the 10-year leases must also pay for improvements to the mobile home park in addition to the increased rents, according to memos given to the residents by the park's owner, Roseville-based Waterhouse Management Corp. The increases in rent were announced at a meeting held at the trailer park last week by the park's new owners.

On top of the $100 monthly increase that begins Jan. 10, 2006, those who sign multiyear leases will face additional increases ranging from $50 to $350 a month in 2007.

For people like Rose and her neighbor Janet Voshell, who is used to rent increasing by an average of $108 annually, the $1,200 annual hit to her pocketbook might just be too hard to take.

"I won't be able to handle it. I'm on a fixed income and can barely make it right now. The question is, what priorities will I give up just to make a living?"

Representatives of the property-management company did not return two messages left at their headquarters on Monday. The company owns and operates more than 50 mobile home parks in California. The company purchased the Grass Valley Mobile Home Park from a family trust, Voshell said.

Rose and approximately two dozen of her neighbors showed up Monday at a Rood Administrative Center conference room, hoping to bend the ear of the county's Affordable Housing Advisory Committee.

Though they weren't on the agenda, the committee of county supervisors and housing officials promised to address the park's concerns at next month's meeting.

Rose, who takes home $886 every two weeks as a county employee, said moving from the Grass Valley Mobile Home Park to another nearby won't be easy. Moving to an affordable housing complex is probably out of the question, since she'd have to get rid of a 29-year-old, 720-square-foot single-wide trailer with a leaky roof.

"And I don't see much in the paper that I can afford," Rose said.

Her neighbor, 84-year-old Marj Shelby, feels the same as many of her neighbors.

"Where else can you get a place that's any cheaper?" said Shelby, who moved into the complex 11 years ago. She receives $1,265 a month, most of which comes from her deceased husband's retirement benefits.

Rose, who purchased a newer used car recently that fit into her monthly budget, now wonders if she can keep it or simply retire in a few years.

With increased rents, Rose, 60, wonders if her proposed $937 monthly retirement income will be enough to cover her expenses. She's due to retire in October after 14 years with the county.

"There are people that are far worse off than us," Rose said. "I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to keep working."

The place where Janet Voshell and her friends live, she said, isn't a five-star park by any means. Many of the mobile homes, travel trailers and fifth-wheel recreational vehicles bump up against each other in a tight squeeze. But the compound is tree-lined, and people are more than willing to help each other out when needed, she said.

"I like where I live," Voshell said. "It's my home, or it was, for the long haul."

<I>To contact staff writer David Mirhadi, e-mail davidm@theunion.com or call 477-4229.</I>