OSTA: Empowering Park & Marina Residents
If you are an Oregon Manufactured Home Park or Marina resident who owns their home, but rents the space or slip in which your home is located, then we are here for you.
OSTA is your support network, a trusted source of information about your rights, and your advocate for more secure housing through improved legislation.
Through these efforts and initiatives, we enhance your quality of life.
OSTA is a nonprofit, grassroots organization that seeks direction from members, avoiding a top-down approach, regarding decision-making on critical issues affecting members’ lifestyle choices, quality of life, and rights as residents in manufactured housing and floating home communities.
OSTA works to provide an expanding array of programs, information, and services to its members. It is an organization focused, not only on protecting the rights of homeowners as residents in parks and marinas but an organization that supports all aspects of manufactured and floating home living.
To enable this to happen we rely on members, teams, and colleagues, across the state who support this common vision. This work requires time, investment, and dedication to serve our 80,000+ residents and we rely solely on memberships and donations to achieve our goals.
Join OSTA Link
https://oregontenants.com/membership-account/membership-levels/
OSTA: Empowering Park & Marina Residents
OSTA Update: Legislation and the Survey
Is the dream of affordable living in manufactured and floating home communities slipping away for Oregon's seniors and families? Join us as we confront the reality of escalating rents with Bill Bateman from the Oregon State Tenants Association. They're working on legislative solutions to secure a fairer future. Learn about the compounding threat of rent increases and the urgent need for change as they push to turn the tide against potential homelessness.
We dive into the new legislative measures submitted to the Oregon Legislative Council and detail the ongoing survey collecting crucial data on senior living conditions. Hear firsthand accounts from seniors across Oregon who have bravely shared their stories through Zoom meetings. Their experiences highlight the widespread challenges these communities are facing, emphasizing the critical need for legislative intervention. Discover how you can participate in this vital work, engage with local representatives, and become a powerful advocate for change in manufactured home communities. Your involvement matters; help shape a sustainable future for all.
Link to:
Survey for Mobile Home Residents in Oregon.
http://bit.ly/4eAi9hW
Oregon State Legislators
OSTA main email: hello@oregontentants.com
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Comments or Questions for the Podcast
Email: bbateman@oregontenants.com
Copyright OSTA2045,2025 Not for rebroadcast w/o express written permission. Please share and download for educational purposes with attribution.
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After months of work, the journey to stabilize rent for owners of manufactured and floating homes is finally underway. This is another OSTA update. Come on in, let's find out all about it. Hi everybody, I'm Bill Bateman, part of the team at OSTA, the Oregon State Tenants Association.
Bill Bateman:For years, mobile home and I'm putting mobile home in those air quotes communities were considered the last refuge for many. Well, they aren't really mobile and they haven't been for years, and they haven't been for years, so let's call them manufactured homes instead. But they were considered a haven for seniors to spend out their retirement years peacefully, and younger families could start out until they could afford something more substantial. Well, if those days ever existed, it no longer does. Seniors are now considered cash cows and even with rent increases capped by law to a maximum of 10 percent this due to recent Oregon legislation the compounding effect is going to cause rents to double in just 10 years. Add to that a population that can't go back to work either due to health or age, and the fact there is often limited upkeep done in spite of those regular increases. You also see illegal tactics and attempts at intimidation. All of that adds up to an equation guaranteed to increase homelessness for seniors and profits for owners. Well, on September 25th, legislation to address many of these concerns concerns we've been talking about for the past several months was turned over to the Oregon Legislative Council for review. Now, today and today we're going to call October the 11th a new survey went live. We've been talking about it, we've been working on it and it is happening. It went live in Oregon to get more documentation for the seniors of Oregon about their problems and conditions. Now this follows on the heels of a week-long session of Zoom meetings where seniors were invited all the way from Brookings up to Portland to testify about the problems in their park without fear of reprisal. Those meetings and the present survey are going to be used to document the seriousness and pervasive nature of the problems seniors face to the legislators. This helps show the problem is real, it's not isolated, it's not one or two random cases, but it's something that's happening all up and down the I-5 corridor.
Bill Bateman:You're listening to this. You've very likely been to the OSTA main page to pick up the podcast. If not, you're invited to be part of the survey and reach out either at the address on the login hello at oregontenantscom, by October 31st. Now, if you're an Oregon senior living in a manufactured or a floating home and you want to be part of this survey, you're invited to reach out to Osta at hello at oregontenantscom by October 31st and we'll send you a copy of the survey via email. You're also invited to click the link which you'll find at the startup of this podcast, the Osta podcast, and that'll get you an electronic copy of the survey. Now, it's one copy per home and you can only fill it in one time. That's where we're going to be asking you for your email and some other identifying information, but that information is not going to be shared with the legislators or anyone else. As a private nonprofit, we're free from having to worry about disclosures, so your information is secure. Your name and address won't go unless you want it to, but your stories and your complaints and your problems will.
Bill Bateman:The survey is going to show the need for the legislation and the way to get the legislation is. Take part in the survey. We're going to also be talking about outreach. We can do as, once the survey and the legislative reviews are complete things we can do to reach our legislators and let them know how serious this legislation In addition to Representative Pam Marsh and Representative Neron, who have been involved in the process since day one, and a number of other educational and government service agencies as well. We had Senator Jeff Golden show up, and apparently he's getting these kind of complaints and concerns too, and he wanted to find out just exactly what's going on. So thank you, representatives and Senator Golden. It's nice to see folks involved working to solve the process, and that's something we're all going to have to do. I'll include a list to where the representatives may be reached if you want to reach out and contact your area representative, your state representative or even your state senator, because this is something that is growing.
Bill Bateman:Homelessness for seniors is something we can prevent in the future by taking action today. Senior homelessness is a real problem. It's not something five years down the road. It's not something 10 years down the road. I have been in parks when this is something people are looking at the first of next month. So these are issues that we can stop in advance. These are things we can find equitable solutions so that rent is used to fund repairs to keep the parks safe and operating correctly, in addition to providing a profit for the landlords and the management companies. So let's work on this together.
Bill Bateman:If you have questions, visit the Osta website and do tune in on a regular basis to these podcasts. They're going to be short, but they're going to be a lot of them. Your time is valuable and we don't want to just sit here and go blah, blah, blah. If you've got questions, if you've got interest in the survey, it's all right up front and you can log in. Thank you very much. We're going to be working on more things, including this business about seniors being cash cows. More on that in the next podcast. Thank you very much, be safe, god bless, and we'll see you next time.
