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: Its Offical! HB 3054 (and More!)
Unlock the secrets of empowering tenant communities with our latest episode featuring key insights into Oregon's housing landscape. With House Bill 3054 gaining momentum, thanks to the relentless efforts of Representative Pam Marsh and the spotlight from the Rogue Valley Times, we're on the cusp of transformative changes for manufactured and floating home communities.
Joinus for the first Zooomof the year. You'll learn from Matthew Johnson, an OSTA board member and practicing attorney, as well as Ken Pryor from Oregon Housing and Community Services, who are set to equip you with the tools needed for effective advocacy.
We will discuss the vital next steps if mediation doesn’t yield results. This isn't just about information; it's about giving you the power to effect change in your community. Can't attend live? No worries! We've got you covered with a recording available afterward on the OSTA website. Keep checking your emails and texts for details, and get ready to transform your living environment into a thriving and empowered community.
Link to Rogue ValleyTimes Article: https://www.rv-times.com/localstate/mobile-home-dwellers-rally-against-rent-hikes-hopeful-for-proposed-legislation/article_9b21272e-c3cf-11ef-bb5c-9fc16d06f9c8.html
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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. Welcome to the first OSTA update of 2025. We've got a lot of good stuff to talk about. Come on in. Well, hi everybody. I'm Bill Bateman, part of the team at the Oregon State Tenants Association, or OSTA as we like to call it, and this is our first update for 2025. There's a lot going on.
Speaker 1:I promised you good information as soon as I got it. We've put the lights away, we've cleaned up the holiday debris and we're back on the road making things happen. The first good news we had is that the House bill has an official number. It's HB 3054, house Bill 3054. That's going to be introduced by Representative Pam Marsh and her hardworking team up there in Salem and that's going to happen in the first session. So we're very excited about that.
Speaker 1:More good news, and I'm really tickled about this here in the Medford area, ms Buffy Pollack of the Rogue Valley Times contacted me really thanks to your letters and your outreach, and put together a very nice article all about HB 3054 and the problems we in manufactured home communities and floating home communities are facing, and I've included the link in the login for this podcast. It's an excellent article. I'm very, very appreciative of the Rove Valley Times doing such an in-depth piece. There's an online section, which is where you'll be directed. Today is the 5th, it's Sunday, the 5th of January, and that paper is also on newsstands today at your favorite retailer location. So you know, refinance the house and go ahead and pick up a copy. Yes, there's a little bit of me in there, but there's also a lot of information about you folks, the folks who wrote, the folks who have reached out, the folks who have testified. So if you have reached out to the Rogue Valley Times, they are listening. There's a very good story and it talks about the problems and issues we're facing. Very good coverage. Thank you very much. Rogue Valley Times and Ms Buffy Pollack Great work.
Speaker 1:What else is going on? Well, we promised you when we got into January that we would have a seminar. It's looking like it's going to be on the 10th. There'll be more information as we go. That'll be coming out both text and email, but it's going to feature Matthew Johnson. He's on the OSTA board and he is an attorney Now, as he likes to preface this. He's on the OSTA board and he is an attorney Now as he likes to preface this. He's not an OSTA attorney, but he is on the OSTA board and he is a practicing attorney, and my other guest is going to be Mr Ken Pryor, who's the program coordinator, the Home Ownership Division of Oregon Housing and Community Services, and we're going to talk about some really interesting issues, kind of, first of all, forming your tenants association, getting that tenants association going, getting it moving, how to do it.
Speaker 1:There's three different types of official tenant organizations and a couple of informal ways to do it as well. You don't have to spend hours and hours and thousands and thousands of dollars. It doesn't cost you anything and it is giving you a lot of power in solving problems. So the first part we'll be discussing forming your tenants association and the other is what to look for if mediation fails. If mediation fails, what next? So we'll be putting a link up in the next OSTA update with information on that meeting. We're looking around the 10th of January and it's probably going to be 11 o'clock. In fact I'm sure of the time it's going to be 11. Everybody's got such busy schedules, especially after the first of the year. We're just kind of trying to nail it down, put it together. But if that's something you're interested in, keep checking in. We'll get information out as soon as we can and we will record it. So if you can't join us for the live presentation, it'll be posted on the OSTA website and I'm sure Oregon Housing and Community Service will make the link available. We'll share the link with them so you'll both have an opportunity. Both organizations are going to give you the opportunity to see that at a later time if you can't sit down and watch it live with us. So those are the three big issues. House Bill 3054 is officially named and rolling forward, an excellent article in the Road Valley Times and, by golly, our first Zoom meeting of the year.
Speaker 1:I do need to say that the Zoom meetings last year that we did in connection with the survey are credited with getting a lot of people involved. Also, I need to make sure that we've thanked the tenants themselves. We had one group at a park. Five women got together and made over 500 phone calls to get people aware of the survey. That's the kind of stuff, folks, we can't do it without you, and you have done an excellent job. Thank you, thank you, thank you. That does also illustrate to the people watching how important this is. This is not one or two people who are unhappy about something. This is hundreds of people who are having serious problems. We did post the survey results. They're on the website. They have been used in that article. Okay, so the top three things on my list we've talked about.
Speaker 1:Next, what's happening next? I promised you we'd be holding Zoom meetings. Those are happening. We're going to be working at, by the way. Be holding Zoom meetings those are happening, we're going to be working at. By the way, the Zoom meetings oh my gosh were very helpful in getting the survey put together. They were part of it. Also, part of it was you, you the listener, you the people responding. I had one group of volunteers at a senior park. Five women got together and made over 500 phone calls and I can't stress how impressive that is enough. Thank you, ladies. If I thought it was appropriate, I'd thank you by name, but I don't think anybody wants to really go on the record. But yes, god bless you. You did a wonderful job and that's the kind of power that we need to harness. You have done a wonderful thing and we're going to be harnessing that kind of power.
Speaker 1:I'm approaching the county commissioners in Jackson County and urge you to do the same in your county, to reach out and get a proclamation issued for February. February is Senior Independence Month, senior Independent Living Month, I think, is the exact title. And, oh my gosh, what could be a better idea than not getting evicted and having your home taken away from you due to excessive fees and charges? So I'm working on putting together a proclamation. It's not hard, it doesn't cost anything and as I get mine written, I will share it on the OSTA website and you'll have an opportunity to modify it for your community and approach your county commissioners and if they do, great, and if they don't, that's pretty significant. We'll talk about those who do and we'll talk about those who don't and try and get to the bottom of why. Maybe even look at the city level, if you have like. I'm going to approach the city of Medford and the city of Ashland and ask if they could probably issue a proclamation as well. Again, it costs nothing, it's a little typing, it's some wordsmithing. We'll share some samples. If you've got some samples of ideas you'd like to share, please, my address is there in the login for the podcast and we'll put them up on the website. We want you to be able to be a part of the process. So that's what's happening.
Speaker 1:We're also going to be looking at trying to get people together. It's not financially practical to get a bus and put everybody up overnight to go to Salem when the testimony happens. But if you're in the area, if you can carpool in and attend, we've got some very good ideas to make our presence known in a very positive and very proactive way for the testimony. And if you've never done that, if you've never been part of going to our state capitol, it's definitely worth the effort. They make it hard to park. They make it hard to find things. That's not by intent, that's just the fact. The building's older than I am and you got to navigate through labyrinths to find stuff, but it's worth going Again. That's the plan for the next couple of months. We're going to use January to get proclamations and build local awareness. We're going to continue the positive attitude we have and the positive support we're showing.
Speaker 1:Thank you all. I can't do this alone. I'm just one of us. It's the old you can blow out one cannibal, but you can't blow out a fire, and we're going to be the fire that catches the attention to the senior financial crisis ahead. Okay, there will be more podcasts coming up. They'll be shorter, but they will be more frequent so we can be current and up to date. Keep talking to each other, keep working in teams and in pairs. Document, don't be afraid to take video. Be the power for change. We'll talk to you next time. Until then, this is Bill Bateman, oregon State Tenants Association, wishing you a very good day, stay warm, stay healthy and stay dry. The preceding program was a presentation of Retired Guy Productions.
