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: Let’s Talk Transparency!
As February wraps up, we dive deep into the latest developments surrounding housing policies in Oregon, particularly the complexities of HB 3054 and its noteworthy effects on mobile home community members. In this episode, we challenge park owners to open their books and show how funding is utilized. this could provide vital insights into the relationship between small park owners and the corporations that dominate the market. By advocating for transparency, we aim to empower everyone who grapples with rising rents and equity concerns.
We will also share valuable resources available to those in need and practical tips for managing energy bills effectively in super cold weather.
Join us for an engaging conversation that promotes community support and works towards better living conditions for all residents. Don’t forget to reach out with your questions, thoughts, or personal experiences. Together, we can advocate for a fair and transparent rental environment.
Access Energy Assistance: 1541-779-9020
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Email: bbateman@oregontenants.com
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Well, hi everybody, it's the end of the month, time to kind of put our ducks in a row and see what's been going on. That means it's time for another OSTA update. Hi everybody, I'm Bill Bateman, part of the team here at OSTA, the Oregon State Tenants Organization, and yes, indeed, it is the 28th of February. We're all out of February, my goodness. Topping the news, of course, is HB 3054. I get a lot of calls, people wondering what's going on, what's the status, and I actually heard from Rep Marsh yesterday and everything is in process, everything is moving along. I have decided because it's a fairly complex process Something's on the table, something's off the table, something's going, something's not going, then it's back. I don't want to get into an hourly almost like a boxing match, blow by blow description. That's very confusing, it's very unsettling and it leads to misinformation. So I have nothing to report other than things are moving forward. I wish I had more to share, but I don't have anything concrete. So the idea is I will, as soon as I get it, I will share it with you. It's looking. There are going to be some proposed amendments and I'm going to talk about one of them here in a few minutes.
Bill Bateman:I know there's a lot of concern. In fact, let's talk about it right now. There have been a lot of people saying the small park owners, because really there are three people. There are three dogs in this fight, if you will. There's you and I, the homeowners they're the big corporations that own hundreds of parks. And then there are the independent parks, the folks who have maybe one, maybe two parks, the smaller mom and pop owners, and we met some of those at the hearing in early February and they seem to be kind of caught in the crosshairs. Or, if you take another look at it, they're the human shield being used by the corporations. It's difficult for them and the big concern for them is the rent reset issue. For us as well, it's the rent reset issue that makes it hard for us to sell our home, because the rent goes up significantly when we move out. It eats up our equity. The concern is maintenance and cost, and operating a park is, according to these folks, highly, highly expensive, and they feel they'd be caught in the middle between the big corporations and the homeowner and they'd have to stop operating.
Bill Bateman:I could spend hours going back and forth on this, but I have an idea and it's very simple. This is something I think could be done quite easily. Show us, open your books. I know that I in our park. I've looked around and I've watched. We have regular meetings here. We walk around the park every day, obviously, and the parks I visit. When I go out to work with you folks out there, when our reps go out, when I go out, we look around what's being done. You see maintenance and anybody who owns a car understands this. You don't have to own a mobile home park. Anybody who owns a car knows if you don't do the little stuff, it builds and builds and builds and then it becomes a big thing.
Bill Bateman:We in this park had a situation. There was a water problem that had gone untreated. I have information that says between five and seven years. Finally it let go and we had people here at midnight on a Saturday with tractors and backhoes trying to get things under control. It was not cheap. Now I'd be curious to know because, as a business owner, I always had a contingency fund, I always had an emergency fund, I had savings, I had insurance, I had things put aside for when stuff broke, because stuff does.
Bill Bateman:I would like to know park owners, especially you big guys. I hear how much you're spending. I'd like to know what you're spending it on, because I'm not seeing it. I understand the water bill comes due. I understand the trash has to be picked up. I understand property taxes have to be paid. I have to pay my property taxes too. So, yes, there's the average Monday, tuesday, wednesday things we all have to deal with, but the sidewalks aren't getting fixed, the trees aren't getting trimmed, things aren't done until they become a crisis, which makes them more expensive.
Bill Bateman:So my challenge to you open your books, big park or little park. Show us what you're spending your money on. Show us if you have a contingency. We know you're making money because we see the rent go up every year. Is that going to profits for the shareholders or is that going to running the park and, if so, how? If this information is available, maybe we can sit with you and come up with some ideas. Maybe there are some tax incentives, maybe there are some deferred payment plans that can be worked out through the state. I mean, there's a hundred different ideas out there to make things easier for everybody. And I have to say at Osta, we do not view the homeowners and the renters and the parks as adversaries. We're not adversaries, because without one you don't have the other. This is a challenge Show me what you got. Open your books, show us these immense, tremendous costs you're spending every month and evidence of the work being done. My email address is on the front of this podcast. I'm not hard to find, so let's see where that goes HB3054, tied to that.
Bill Bateman:Show us your books and finally, a bit of information for all of our folks out there. Somebody in my park came to me and said hey, bill, do you know? We got somebody here who, because of the snow and because it's been so cold, it was in the teens here in the Phoenix area, phoenix, medford, that type of stuff it got darn cold. I think that's a meteorological term. Yeah, it did get really cold. And what are we going to do about that? What happens is some of the folks are getting tremendous, sky-high electric bills trying to stay warm. There are some people I know this firsthand they had to close off all the rooms in their house and just have a single space heater and they turned their thermostat way down. Now, snow is something we don't have all the time. Cold weather is something we do. Get a number of months and the bills seem to get higher. There is some discussion about that. That's a separate podcast.
Bill Bateman:This is for those of you who may be having problems with energy costs Access done here statewide program access. We work with them. They're fine people. They have an energy assistance and weatherization program. Now the program is designed to assist low-income households in paying for a portion of their energy costs and the good news is you do not need to have a shutoff notice to be eligible for assistance. You don't need to be in the weeds. So, before you get into a bad position, call access. I'm going to give the number a couple of times and it will be on the front of this podcast. Please call access, energy Assistance 541-779-9020. That number again, 541-779-9020. I'll include this number and the website address on the front of the broadcast.
Bill Bateman:There's a lot of other good things you can look at. I know at our house I didn't have the time to get in and go to my electric company. We're a customer of Pacific Power and they will average your bill and you pay a specific amount power. And they will average your bill and you pay a specific amount. Let's say, someone should pay $90, someone should pay $230. They average it out and you pay $130 every month. It helps you plan. It's not a surprise. You can do that online. It took me about 45 seconds. You do have to have been a client for at least a year and you do have to be current. You can't be in a collection or having some problems like that. So there's a lot of different ideas and a lot of different options out there.
Bill Bateman:The thing that helps in our park is folks know they can reach out and if you are not talking about these kind of issues in your manufactured home community through your newsletter. We have a couple of monthly meetings. We're adding a third. We have our association meeting. We have our monthly newsletter that goes out and we're also just having a coffee drop-in, just kind of a come on by, have a.
Bill Bateman:We're going to cut up an Entenmann's and have a pot of coffee and see what we can do here and it's I'm really having a problem or did you know so? And so it's not gossiping. It's a case of sharing information, because I got ideas you don't have and you have ideas and information that I don't have. So let's work together on things like energy assistance and they also have a food pantry through access, and that number is also going to be up at the front of the program. So that's where we're ending out the month Update on the bill, a challenge to the big corporations to open their books, show us how much you're spending, and a little bit of information on staying warm and keeping the lights on. So these are serious issues. We'll have more information as it becomes available. Thank you for listening. We look forward to speaking to you again real soon.
