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The owner of Grass Valley Mobile Home Park met with dozens of residents of the 104-space facility Monday, pledging to find solutions that could ease a proposed $50 monthly spike in rents due in seven weeks.
While Ken Waterhouse said he would work with residents to direct them to low-cost energy programs offered by PG&E and Nevada County, he most likely won't be able to slice any more from the proposed rent hikes that take effect Jan. 10.
Waterhouse met with representatives of the county's Affordable Housing Advisory Committee Monday and agreed to assist a new mobile home park task force comprised of owners, residents and members of the existing advisory committee to concentrate specifically on issues at the county's 29 mobile home parks.
Waterhouse last week agreed to slash rent hikes from $100 to $50 after District 2 Supervisor Sue Horne, prodded by the park's residents, agreed to meet with Waterhouse and tour the 45-year-old park.
Rents at Grass Valley Mobile Home Park are due to jump from $350 to $400 a month on Jan. 10. The rents are then scheduled to increase by another $50 in 2007, with no increases in 2008.
Residents continued to ask for some form of rent stabilization or rent control, which Waterhouse said would probably end up costing the residents more in the long run.
Communities that have rent control, Waterhouse said, face constant legal challenges over the practice.
"Rent control, honestly, has made me a rich person," said Waterhouse, the principal owner of a company that owns and manages more than 50 mobile home parks in California.
In Sonoma County, where there are rent controls, park owners have been able to pass along property tax increases and improvements to the park's infrastructure directly to the residents, Waterhouse said.
Jeri McLees, co-owner of the Wagon Ho Grass Valley mobile home park, said a handful of rent-control agreements made have been met immediately with legal challenges.
"Please don't pass an ordinance unless you understand the issues around rent control," she said. "Mr. Waterhouse is at the table. Let's give him a chance."
McLees said she's traditionally charged her residents an increase equal to the consumer price index increase, plus 1 percent.
Waterhouse said he was forced to increase the rents at the 45-year-old Grass Valley Mobile Home Park to help pay for $560,000 in improvements made by the park's previous owner and to pay a hefty property tax bill. Waterhouse purchased the park just two months ago from former owner Patrice Cole for $5.4 million.
Many residents were used to paying an additional $9 per month increase each year from the park's previous owners.
"I shouldn't be punished because Mr. Waterhouse owns the ground my mobile home sits on," said Donna Day, who has lived in the park since 1978.
Norma Ingalls, a park resident and president of the newly formed Grass Valley Mobilehome Owners Association, lobbied the committee for a long-term rent stabilization solution.
She proposed an interim ordinance limiting rent increases to the annual inflation rate - about 4 percent annually.
"We have to be in a situation that guarantees us that in a year, two years or five years from now, we're not put back in the same situation we're in now," Ingalls told the committee.
"Does $50 a month sound good to you guys?" she asked the audience, to a chorus of boos.
Ingalls' husband, Skip, conducted a poll of residents and noted that 90 percent of the park's owners who returned questionnaires made less than $25,000 annually.
Former Grass Valley council members Dee Mautino and Linda Stevens, who both live in different mobile home parks, came to the defense of residents, as well.
"Most of us don't have the income to go to assisted living facilities," said Mautino, who pays $475 monthly at the Sierra Pines Mobile Home Park. "It's not like we don't want owners to make a profit. We're a very willing customer to allow that to happen," she said. "I think the owners have to have a little compassion for us, too."
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To contact staff writer David Mirhadi, e-mail davidm@theunion.com or call 477-4229.
While Ken Waterhouse said he would work with residents to direct them to low-cost energy programs offered by PG&E and Nevada County, he most likely won't be able to slice any more from the proposed rent hikes that take effect Jan. 10.
Waterhouse met with representatives of the county's Affordable Housing Advisory Committee Monday and agreed to assist a new mobile home park task force comprised of owners, residents and members of the existing advisory committee to concentrate specifically on issues at the county's 29 mobile home parks.
Waterhouse last week agreed to slash rent hikes from $100 to $50 after District 2 Supervisor Sue Horne, prodded by the park's residents, agreed to meet with Waterhouse and tour the 45-year-old park.
Rents at Grass Valley Mobile Home Park are due to jump from $350 to $400 a month on Jan. 10. The rents are then scheduled to increase by another $50 in 2007, with no increases in 2008.
Residents continued to ask for some form of rent stabilization or rent control, which Waterhouse said would probably end up costing the residents more in the long run.
Communities that have rent control, Waterhouse said, face constant legal challenges over the practice.
"Rent control, honestly, has made me a rich person," said Waterhouse, the principal owner of a company that owns and manages more than 50 mobile home parks in California.
In Sonoma County, where there are rent controls, park owners have been able to pass along property tax increases and improvements to the park's infrastructure directly to the residents, Waterhouse said.
Jeri McLees, co-owner of the Wagon Ho Grass Valley mobile home park, said a handful of rent-control agreements made have been met immediately with legal challenges.
"Please don't pass an ordinance unless you understand the issues around rent control," she said. "Mr. Waterhouse is at the table. Let's give him a chance."
McLees said she's traditionally charged her residents an increase equal to the consumer price index increase, plus 1 percent.
Waterhouse said he was forced to increase the rents at the 45-year-old Grass Valley Mobile Home Park to help pay for $560,000 in improvements made by the park's previous owner and to pay a hefty property tax bill. Waterhouse purchased the park just two months ago from former owner Patrice Cole for $5.4 million.
Many residents were used to paying an additional $9 per month increase each year from the park's previous owners.
"I shouldn't be punished because Mr. Waterhouse owns the ground my mobile home sits on," said Donna Day, who has lived in the park since 1978.
Norma Ingalls, a park resident and president of the newly formed Grass Valley Mobilehome Owners Association, lobbied the committee for a long-term rent stabilization solution.
She proposed an interim ordinance limiting rent increases to the annual inflation rate - about 4 percent annually.
"We have to be in a situation that guarantees us that in a year, two years or five years from now, we're not put back in the same situation we're in now," Ingalls told the committee.
"Does $50 a month sound good to you guys?" she asked the audience, to a chorus of boos.
Ingalls' husband, Skip, conducted a poll of residents and noted that 90 percent of the park's owners who returned questionnaires made less than $25,000 annually.
Former Grass Valley council members Dee Mautino and Linda Stevens, who both live in different mobile home parks, came to the defense of residents, as well.
"Most of us don't have the income to go to assisted living facilities," said Mautino, who pays $475 monthly at the Sierra Pines Mobile Home Park. "It's not like we don't want owners to make a profit. We're a very willing customer to allow that to happen," she said. "I think the owners have to have a little compassion for us, too."
ooo
To contact staff writer David Mirhadi, e-mail davidm@theunion.com or call 477-4229.
