Bill Bateman

Good morning . It's another OSTA update . It's December the 15th . I'm Bill Bateman and come on in , we'll bring you all the latest information . Well , hi everybody .

Bill Bateman

I'm Bill Bateman , part of the team here at the Oregon State Tenants Association , and on December 11th I testified remotely before the House Interim Committee on Housing and Homelessness . This was chaired by Representative Pam Marsh and it was on the pending legislation produced by our work group . The working title right now is LC 1860 . This is not the formal title that will be assigned at the beginning of the session . We'll have HB as the designation and then a number . So that's what you're going to be looking to . A special thank you to my Vice President , rochelle Love Elder , and John Van Landingham of the Osta Board for their exceptional contributions and efforts as creating the remainder of this project . This is a working copy . This means it is likely there will be future changes and , to make it easy for you to follow , I've established a link to the draft of the bill as it stands today . That link is in the login area . Give it a click and I recommend bookmarking that section . There's a lot of good information to follow if you're new to the legislative process . So here's what I said , this is all about the numbers and their impacts . We've shared some of these numbers today with you in the documents submitted in preparation for the session . The numbers that brought us here today inspired me to become active in Osta approximately a year ago , and while working with residents of 55-plus parks , I've not only seen firsthand the problems we're talking about today , but as the 75-year-old owner of a manufactured home , they also are affecting me personally . So let's have a look at some of these numbers and some of those impacts .

Bill Bateman

Our survey is revealing in its consistencies . In addition to the written survey data , we provided Zoom meetings were held September 9th through September 12th , drawing attendance from as far south as Brookings all the way to Portland . Oregon Watch parties were put together with multiple computers to set up in clubhouses and allow as many people to participate as possible . A group of five volunteers at one park made over 500 phone calls to alert our membership . Of the combined 525 responses , there were over 1,200 in-depth comments , and those were provided in multiple categories by respondents from all over the state . I've read through them and submitted nine for your review .

Bill Bateman

I wanted to show that these are not isolated , one-off problems . Many comments are focusing on the decline in maintenance , maintenance and park service , despite the regular increase in rent . More importantly , there is a growing concern over the total lack of transparency for these cost increases . We discovered questionable practices used to force tenants to gain their property for next to nothing . These pernicious issues drew more attention due to the increasing emotional pressures that are being placed on the residents . We seniors are seen as cash cows because we have no place else to go . Not all seniors are wealthy , by the way . No prompts were given in any category for these comments . It is interesting those commenting spoke only on the condition of anonymity due to fear of reprisal and retaliation . Not of reprisals for giving up a military secret or betraying a crime boss , but for fear of testifying about problems in their own park and about their own homes .

Bill Bateman

So let's look hard at these numbers . How do these rent increases impact a resident ? 73% are struggling to pay other bills , 47% finding it difficult to afford food , 43% are unable to sell their home , 41% will not be able to stay in their homes , 34% will need to go back to work over the age of 65 and even 10% are finding it difficult to care for either children or other elders in the family . Let's hear from one of the tenants on these issues . Years and years of delayed maintenance have left the water and sewer systems in the park , as well as the fire hydrants and landscape plumbing , in need of serious repairs . In the past four years they have averaged six emergency water shutoff , some lasting more than eight hours , some lasting more than eight hours . When they turn it back on , the weak links sustain damage and cross-contamination of backflow prevention devices results in muddy water filling our sinks , washing machines , water heaters and ice makers with mud . To sum it up , preventing a problem is much easier than fixing one .

Bill Bateman

This proposed bill is a very good first step to prevent the oncoming wave of homelessness of the elderly , while allowing investors a profit on their investment . Anything else just won't add up . Okay , that testimony , along with all of the collected data , was submitted to the committee , along with testimony on that information by both John and Rochelle , also in support of the measure . Now we're going to keep you up to date here . Tune in for OSTA updates . I've added the links to the bill and the committee page , as well as some other useful links at the sign-in area . Useful links at the sign-in area .

Bill Bateman

Let's spend January working at the county level to promote proclamations and support for Senior Independent Living Month . That is a national event which is going to be held in February . Let's look to our commissions and city council for that . We'll have a workshop on that activity to give you more preparation . Once the bill has an official title , we can begin writing and working to build support for it and we'll have legislators we'd like you to reach out to to build additional awareness . Also coming up in January dealing with what to do when a tenant organization is just not enough . We're going to have more details on that upcoming online event in our next OSTA update .

Bill Bateman

All right , that's it for this time around . Thank you for listening . We look forward to seeing you at our next OSTA update . Have an excellent holiday at your house . Be safe it's kind of slippery out there with all this cold weather and rain and we'll holiday at your house . Be safe it's kind of slippery out there with all this cold weather and rain and we'll see you again soon . The preceding program was a presentation of Retired Guy Productions .