Editor:
I noted with interest Ryan Sundberg’s comments opposing Measure V because he thinks it wouldn’t be fair to the new owners of a mobile home park if they couldn’t impose unlimited rent increases. Sundberg chose to represent the 42 park owners instead of 1,500 families in Humboldt. It is especially interesting that his example is of a park owner that doesn’t even live in Humboldt.
Frequently I hear that park residents should have done their due diligence before purchasing a manufactured home. May I suggest that the multi-million-dollar park owners outside of Humboldt should have done their due diligence? Did they not know that poor people can only give so much before their only recourse is to stand up and say, “Enough!”
Or perhaps they didn’t know that Humboldt people still have empathy and care what happens to others. This is why I love Humboldt.
Patti Rose, McKinleyville
Editor:
Measure V on the November ballot is important not just as a sensible consideration, but also as a moral issue. It seeks to limit the amount of increase in rents for mobile home spaces. There comes a point, even in capitalism, where a distinction must be made between profit and excess. In a time where excess is frequently extolled as the epitome of success, it is imperative to remember that excess is what is destroying our society (viz; CEO pay packages of $30 million a year).
Local owners have come before the BOS and city councils and noted that they have, for years, limited their rental increases to something around 3 to 5 percent a year, whereas corporations frequently increase rents 15 percent or more. The fact that corporations are buying mobile home parks, even in areas with rent stabilization measures in place, indicates that they know there is ample profit to be made.
Larry Hourany, McKinleyville
This article appears in An American Genocide.
I thought it enlightening the TV commercial last night where the trailer park owner expressed surprise that rents of $450.00 are considered excessive. I was paying rent like that decades ago.
Hilary Mosher, the disgraced author of Measure V who was forced to resign from her own rent control campaign has finally admitted that she lied when she denied being the writer of a January 2016 email offering to quit all rent control efforts in exchange for $150,000 in land and an interest-free loan. Mosher told the Mad River Union newspaper: I will not dignify this scurrilous libel with a response. Mad River Union Update 10.25.16: “According to an article in todays Times-Standard, Hilary Mosher confirmed that she did, in fact, write the email. This contradicts statements made by Mosher to the Union in which she denied writing the email and suggests that the email was just a campaign dirty trick.” Moshers two remaining campaign lieutenants, Patti Rose and Carrie Peyton Dahlberg, refused to condemn the greed and self-interest of their boss; instead, they thanked and praised Mosher. Humboldt County voters cannot trust people like this. Vote NO on Measure V.
Local media dropped the ball long ago in failing to follow-up on local home affordability rates, among the worst in the state, due to the greed of unbridled developers.
So far, not one media source has reported the number of local foreclosures amid the worst housing-related economic depression since the 1930’s.
There’s too many people like Mr. Mangels who could care less that their community inches towards feudalism while decrying increases in crime, violence, and drug abuse.
So, Fred, did you rent an apartment or own a manufactured house? People in MH parks bought and paid for their 4 walls. They are not renting the walls they are renting the land. And they also maintain their homes. It is not like an apartment where they can call the landlord when the water heater breaks or the roof leaks. Seniors are at the end of their life and can’t go get a job if their rent goes up. And we know that their social security isn’t going up. Their house is their only investment which is not mobile even if they could afford to move it. They have no choice but to cut down on some other expense. The “NO” folks want you to compare your rent to the $450. They are banking on it and that is why they leave out that one small fact. Don’t be fooled by half a story. Vote Yes on Measure V.
The city of Arcata has been looking into mobilehome park rent control for 15 months. In March, the Arcata City Council authorized an expenditure of $35,000 to hire a respected, local community consulting firm to conduct a fair and comprehensive study on this highly controversial public policy. On September 30th, the much-anticipated 32-page Executive Summary of the draft Mobilehome Affordability Strategies Study backed up by 418 pages of research, exhibits, reports and surveys was made public. The study’s independent analysis should overwhelmingly convince every voter to reject Measure V on Election Day.
One of the study’s most compelling conclusions can be found on page 26 and follows here verbatim and in the exact order it was written: “The main argument against rent stabilization ordinances is that they do not help the neediest among us.Rent stabilization ordinances are not meanstested, meaning that all Mobilehome owners benefitregardless of economic need. Folks living closest to the margins of our local economic index cannotafford the slight increases tied to CPI which rent stabilization ordinances allow. Verylow and extremelylow income individuals would benefit more from a rental assistance program, longterm lease, MOU, orgovernment rental subsidy which aims to support those who are paying more than 30% of their monthlyincome on housing costs.”
Before you vote, please go to http://www.nomeasurev.com and read the Arcata study. Youll learn why rent control is bad for Humboldt County. Vote NO on Measure V.