Longview Hills @ Newport Oregon

Sent in by Dick Garvey


By ADAM ASHTON
BEE STAFF WRITER
Last Updated: June 2, 2006, 04:12:58 AM PDT

City council members from three communities and two Stanislaus County
supervisors are laying plans to fight steep rent increases at mobile
home parks owned by one of the nation's biggest landlords.

The council members say they're fed up with annual rent hikes of as
much as $100 a month at parks owned by Chicago's Equity LifeStyles
Properties.

The company owns three parks in the county: Colony Park in Ceres,
Quail Meadows in Riverbank and Coralwood in Modesto. Residents own
their homes but rent the space on which they sit.

They pay from $556 a month in Colony Park to $750 at Coralwood. Their
rents have nearly doubled since Equity LifeStyles started buying
mobile-home parks in Stanislaus County in the late 1990s.

Countywide, the average mobile-home park rent is $425.75, according to
a January report from the Ceres Planning Department. Equity LifeStyles
owns communities in 28 states and in Canada.

"When you look at comparable parks, this guy is out of line. He's just
out of line," Ceres City Councilman Ken Lane said, referring to
billionaire Equity LifeStyles Chairman Sam Zell.

Lane is working with two county supervisors and his counterparts from
Modesto and Riverbank to keep mobile-home rents down. They met a month
ago and are planning more meetings.

Lane said he is interested in working out compromises that could
protect mobile-home owners who have fixed incomes. The Ceres City
Council has indicated it was not interested in rent control, but Lane
said that option is on the table if other offers fail.

DeMartini: 'It borders on immoral'

Supervisor Jim DeMartini said the county could establish a mobile-home
rent mediation board to tackle complaints about Equity LifeStyles.

"They have raised the rents unjustifiably, and I really think they're
taking advantage of the residents," DeMartini said. "I can't see that
they're doing anything illegal, but certainly it borders on immoral."

It's not easy for mobile-home owners to pack up and leave the parks
where they live. It costs thousands of dollars to move a mobile home,
and abandoning one means leaving an investment behind.

Peter Underhill, the Equity LifeStyles regional vice president
negotiating rents in Stanislaus County, did not return calls for
comment. The company has indicated in letters to residents that it
wanted to raise rents in California because it feared rent control
from various local governments.

The company in recent years has fought Sonoma and Monterey counties to
block rent control proposals spurred by its hikes.

Equity LifeStyles renters first sought help from local elected
officials in August 2004 when Coralwood residents asked the Modesto
City Council to enact rent control. The council didn't take steps to
inhibit the company's hikes.

Since then, Riverbank Councilwoman Virginia Madueno said, mobile-home
renters have become more educated about their rights. Their requests
carry greater weight now, she said.

"People have become more vocal, more active and more engaged," she said.

The company and Colony Park residents had a testy meeting a week ago,
said Sharon Burch, 56, a mobile-home owner protesting rent hikes
there.

She praised Lane and other elected officials for helping her neighbors
in their efforts.

"What they've done is exceptional," she said.

Bee staff writer Adam Ashton can be reached at 578-2366 or aashton@modbee.com.