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.
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https://oregontenants.com/membership-account/membership-levels/
OSTA: Empowering Park & Marina Residents
OSTA Update: Extending the Survey!
What if you could reshape rent policies in your community just by participating in a survey? Join me, Bill Bateman from the Oregon State Tenants Association (OSTA), as I share our exceptional progress in our statewide survey on rent issues within manufactured home, and floating home communities. Thanks to an overwhelming turnout and your passionate support, we've extended the survey deadline to November 30th. With grassroots efforts like making over 500 calls in one park alone, we're witnessing a surge of enthusiasm and determination sparking conversations with state senators and pushing for significant policy changes.
This episode unveils the journey toward tying rent increases to the Cost of Living Adjustment (COLA) rather than the standard 10% hike. The response from tenants has been nothing short of extraordinary, leading to productive discussions with state legislators like Senator Golden and Senator Patterson. As a fellow resident of a mobile home community, I can vouch for the collective urgency to ensure fairer rent stabilization measures. With the survey momentum gaining speed, there’s potential for further extensions to gather even more input. Tune in as we navigate these critical developments and strive for equitable living conditions for all of us.
SURVEY LINK:
https://oregontenants.com/survey/
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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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Well, hi everybody. I'm Bill Bateman, part of the team here at OSTA, o-s-t-a, the Oregon State Tenants Association, with another OSTA update. I am very excited to be giving you this update. I thought today would be the last day of the survey, but you know what? We have had such exceptional participation and a number of letters and calls asking please extend the deadline. The deadline for the survey has now been extended to November 30th. That's right. If you haven't had a chance to do the survey or you're just hearing about it now, we're going to be continuing until November, the 30th. Now, this is because the deadline we picked initially was kind of out of a hat. We thought put it around the election, it's easy to remember and that's a good amount of time. We did not quite honestly expect such an exceptional turnout and such excellent support. To give you an example of that and I can't give anybody's name because that's not a good plan the idea of folks making calls to help us out was brought up by one of our volunteers, up by one of our volunteers, and we had some people at one park here in Oregon make over 500 phone calls to other people who that they knew through different organizations, different lists and things like that to get people involved in the survey. So this is the kind of enthusiasm and the kind of energy we're seeing, because this problem is statewide and this problem is reaching a boiling point. So people are up in arms. People are calling just about everybody, people are writing to a lot of different folks. I know that down here in our area I think I mentioned last time Senator Golden came to one of our workshops as we were writing the bill because he'd been getting a lot of information. And up north, senator Patterson is also going to be meeting with representatives of the different parks to find out what's going on. What's all this about? So there is a lot of action and by you and I making calls, getting involved, promoting this survey and talking to people, just quite honestly, a grassroots sharing it with your friends, sharing it with your neighbors, sharing it with people you know in other parks it's really catching fire. So the survey has been extended until November, the 30th and, quite honestly, if it keeps boiling, if it keeps moving at this rate, we'll extend it another two weeks if we need to. So that is a very positive thing, high participation in the survey and we're going to extend the deadline. If you need more information on that, there's a link where you're logged in on how to get involved in the survey.
Speaker 1:This is for tenants owners in mobile home or manufactured home communities and floating home communities. This is something that we've talked about off and on. Your newsletter has information. We don't want to beat a dead horse, but it's about rent reduction, rent control and rent stabilization. I think is probably the correct term, and the idea is that we're trying.
Speaker 1:One of the goals of the bill is to link the rent increase to the COLA. Now it's up, it's 10%, it's a standard 10%, regardless of whether it's needed or not, and that is going to be hopefully reduced to linking it to the COLA. Now, again, this is not promised. I say this every time and I'll say it until it's actually signed into law. This is a process where everybody has to agree. There has to be compromise, there has to be discussion. This is what we're asking for, and initially we were going to say, well, instead of 10, could we get five? And the response has been so strong, so strong by the tenants, people like you and me. By the way, I do live in a mobile home or manufactured home community, so I'm one of you. I'm not somebody who's just talking about this, for we'll talk for food. This is I'm a volunteer folks.
Speaker 1:People are so upset about this. It gained a lot of traction, so that's good. Also, if you know folks in smaller parks especially and we're seeing some dark information kind of bubble to the surface here Often the smaller parks don't have the ability to organize like a bigger park does. If there's only 50 of you, it's a little harder than if you've got 250 or 300 in the larger parks. And that's where a lot of the abuse is happening, and it is senior abuse, it's taking advantage, it's bullying, it's intimidation. And if you're in a smaller park, don't be afraid to send out a survey. It costs nothing, nobody's going to know who sent these in, the results are confidential and if you know someone in this situation, don't be afraid to send it in, because nobody's going to know you did.
Speaker 1:We've already managed to catch the attention of the mobile home owners, the people who are behind this, and they're trying to convince folks. They're doing their own survey, by the way, and they're trying to convince folks that. Well, really, you know, gee, 10%, that's just the bare necessities and these are the problems that you and I need to step up. We need to get information. It's going to come very soon, now that the election is dying down, we're going to want to start writing to our local papers, talking to our local representatives. Bring this up at church, bring this up at your club meetings. This is something that is preventing homelessness. This is preventing senior homelessness.
Speaker 1:So, when you get an opportunity anybody else got anything to say at the meeting today Well, yes, as a matter of fact, have you been involved in? Are you aware of? Have your facts together. Don't get mad. That's the worst way to deal with an audience is get all crabby and contentious in front of them. Come in well prepared, come in factually, come in with resources, and that's a good way to build support all up and down the I-5 corridor, from Portland all the way down to Brookings and every stop in between.
Speaker 1:So I wanted to update everyone. This is a short OSTA update. It's talking about the survey being extended. The survey has caught fire. I hate to use that word here in Oregon, but the survey has taken hold and people really are interested in being a part of it, and that's great. We are working with you to make sure your voice is heard. We've had positive support at the from Pam Marsh and the team up there saying yes, as much good information as we can have and if you're in a park that you're having some problems, you especially you especially, we want to hear from you can always call into the OSTA office and we'll get a survey to you or we'll get you the link. It's's real easy to find. It is on the OSTA website. Give it a click. Do the survey doesn't cost you a dime and it is confidential. So that's what's new.
Speaker 1:As of noon on 11-5-24 election day. By the way, I hope you had an opportunity. I think you may still have time today. Drop your ballot off, make your voice heard, be a part of the process. I've got no patience for people who say we're going to sit out an election. No, you don't play, you don't get to complain. So vote your heart, vote your conscience, but do vote. Got a little bit of time today. With that said, thank you very much. We're going to keep you up to date. We'll do these little short bursts of news as they come in and if you've got questions, always feel free to reach out to the address on the login site. Thank you very much Be safe out there and we'll see you next time with another Osta. The preceding program was a presentation of Retired Guy Productions.
