Affordable housing must be protected

The statement that the homes are selling for $100,000.00 above asking price is wrong. Our home has lost it's value by $80,000.00 due to the ecomony and real estate market. To have our rent go up to $1925.00 plus our mortgage would cause us to have to walk away from our home and literally become homeless. We moved to this park so that our children could go to better schools and live in a great community. To take that away because the owners thinks the rents are below market is crazy. All we are getting is a space to put our homes which are not moveable. On top of that they keep passing their improvements on to the residents. We can only take so much.

Friends, friends, friends....
Please, let's NOT make things WORSE by misqouting and taking things out of context. The qoute from the article was "(park)Ownwers said homes in the Park are selling for $100,000 more than they are worth because of the rent-control ordinance." it said than they are WORTH, NOT $100,000 above the asking price. for those of you who don't know, most homes in the park are terrifically affordable -- I bought my home a few years ago for around $60K. The previous owner did not gouge me, or try to get all he could get, he simply wanted to pass along a beloved home to someone getting started as a homeowner. Without this opportunity I never would never have been able to own a place in Marin County, and truthfully, the only reason I could afford to do it is because the low price on the home allowed me to be able to afford the total package. I NEVER would have been able to go from renter to owner if the rents had been $1925 at the time I bought. THANK YOU San Rafael for fighting for us and for the city as a whole. The provision of low income housing, I beleive, keeps federal dollars coming in, which benefits not just a few but the entire city of San rafael. All that being said, let's please try to keep what we residents say ACCURATE -- leave the fear mongering and smear techniques to our opponents!

In the same stream of thought as anywhoo...as I recall when I moved in here not too long ago, it was required that you would be able to afford 3 times the space rent to move in. Let's see if the space rent is $1,925 that would mean you would need to be able to show minimum $5,775. a month in income just for your SPACE rent. Now add your mortgate from Bank of Marin or Hamilton Federal Credit Union to that...since Zell's company knows full well what each of us make because of the mountains of forms and tax returns we had to submit, how it is even possible that he or his legal gang could even phathom that ANYONE in our community could pay that?

ZEll? Sam Zell? Biggest owner and 'developer' of shopping centers in the world? And to think that these corporate parasites are covered by Prop 13 property tax relief? It should be for homeowner's primary residence only, not corporate property that can remain in their hands for hundreds of years.

Thank You San Rafael for the attorneys helping us, and thank you Marin IJ for your editorial. I bought a 1700 sq. ft. mobile home here in Contempo for $180,000 cash after selling my Eichler home four years ago in Terra Linda. I love it here and Contempo is great, but if the rents really go to $1925, I'll be screwed.

I live in this mobile home park and have been dealing with this for far too long!! I have 3 children and thought I was going to be in an affordable and safe neighborhood, now I have to wonder if I am going to be able to keep a roof over mine and my kids head. I can truely say that if this rent increase goes through I will have a hardship and be unable to provide a home, a home that I was proud to say I owned

correction to city I live in

Many thanks to the San Rafael Attorneys for stepping up to the plate in defense of the residence of Contempo Marin. I do not live in Contempo Marin, but having friends there I am appalled and outraged at the large corporate parasited who have no sense of decency regarding the home owners in Contempo Marin especially the seniors and all who are on a fixed income. All they care about is the almighty dollar.It is an impossible situation and is effecting everyone. The residents will be unable to sell since they have to disclose the amount of park rent. They are in a catch 22 and it seems the only one gaining is the owner of the park. What are they trying to accomplish by forcing them out unless ther is an underlying gain such as redevelopment?? Where are thes people going?? To the streets. Who will have to support them the City?? Wake up and step up to the plate. Broker/Owner Klassic Key Properties

get a roommate!

or get a job.

Johnny Americano wrote:

get a roommate!

What in the world are you talking about. Get a roommate or a job. Most people here are retired on fixed income or are holding down 2/3 jobs just to pay the rent and expenses!!
Clarify what you are trying to say

Johnny Americano, You can rent a room from me, but you will have to share my room, I fart alot, or in the kids room, they fart a WHOLE LOT, or, you can get a frickin life , LOSER.

No mention was made of Sam Zell, who is the Chairman of the Board of Trustees and large stakeholder of Equity LifeStyle Properties/ELS (Contempo Marin park owner). Mr. Zell is ranked, by Forbes, as the 52nd richest person in the U.S.[http://www.forbes.com/lis ts/2007/54/richlist07_Samuel-Z ell_98EF.html], currently worth $6 Billion.
In her blog on 4/8/07, renowned author, Susan Murphy-Milano wrote the following to Mr. Zell:
“…you, Mr. Zell, through your Equity LifeStyle Properties, have in recent years become the country's biggest landlord for this type of housing [mobile home]…since you took over, once-affordable rents tied to the consumer price index, are now set at "market rate," which is whatever you say it is…these residents are systematically being stripped of their rights as property owners with no means to appeal…�
The exorbitant rent ELS is proposing to charge ($1925 x 396 homes =$762,300/mo x 12 =$9,147,600/year) will go back to Chicago and not spent here in Marin. If this 200% rent hike is allowed to happen, many (if not all) Contempo residents would be evicted and/or foreclosed upon. Most likely, they would leave the county and, most likely, their homes would remain vacant, as most cannot be moved and no one would want to buy them and pay the exorbitant rent. The County would lose both property tax (many of these mobile homes are on the County tax roll) and sales tax.(I understand, due to Prop 13, that the County will not be able to reappraise the commercial value of the land, which ELS bought at a discount, due to the rent-control that was in place, as it has not changed hands.) ELS will be making up to triple the amount of money it currently makes off the property and none of it will be seen here in Marin.

In the 2/29/08 Readers’ Forum, a letter ran from Peter Underhill, Regional Vice President of Equity Lifestyle Properties, Inc.(ELS),[of which multi-billionaire Sam Zell, is Chairman of the Board of Trustees and large stakeholder] which owns Contempo Marin. In his letter, he states that a two-bedroom apartment in Marin costs $1963/mo. His company is using this as a basis to charge mobilehome owners in Contempo Marin $1925/mo to rent the small plot of land (usually about 40’ x 80’) that their mobilehomes rest on.

Mr. Underhill states that he “feel[s] that the readers deserve to be fully informed of the facts of this case,� yet he left out some of those �facts.� There is a big difference in what one receives when renting an apartment versus renting a small plot of land. When one rents an apartment, a dwelling is provided and the landlord is responsible for maintaining that dwelling (e.g. painting, roofing, plumbing, etc). ELS does not pay for, nor maintain the mobilehomes, nor does ELS even maintain the plots of land they rent out. The homeowners buy the mobile homes (about $69,000 –$200,000, depending on age, size, and location of home), maintain them, and then pay rent to ELS on top of that for the use of the small plot of land (plus County property taxes, in many cases). The homeowners landscape and maintain the plots they rent. It is absurd that ELS compares renting a small plot of land to renting an apartment.

In its lawsuit, ELS complained of “unconstitutional private taking,� and yet that is exactly what it is planning to do to the homeowners of Contempo Marin. If ELS is really concerned with the fairness of private taking, it should pay fair market value to each and every homeowner in Contempo Marin to purchase their homes from them. It is quite apparent that their real motivation is to drive out all of Contempo Marin’s occupants, causing them to lose the equity they have in their homes, and use the land for other, more lucrative purposes.

Does anyone have the link to Underhill's letter? I cannot seem to find.

BluesCruise wrote:

Does anyone have the link to Underhill's letter? I cannot seem to find.

http://www.marinij.com//ci_8450113...
(Second Letter) It appeared in the 2/29/08 Readers' Forum...

In order to educate the readers about the pricing of mobile homes…..
We recently looked into purchasing a new manufactured (mobile) home to be put in the Contempo Marin Park. We currently have an older home there. Thankfully, we did not purchase a new home considering the battles that are currently happening with the greedy owner. The numbers were as follows for a medium size house with no options:
New doublewide approx 26x60:$70,000
Site delivery and set up:$20,000
Site preparation:$ 5,000
Skirting:$ 5,000
Air conditioning:$ 2,500
Removal and disposal of old home:$ 7,500
Awnings over carport:$10,000
----------
Total for new house:$120,000

We found out that not all of the above is covered under a loan, thus out of pocket is needed. I think that everything is covered but please correct me if I have forgot something.
Purchasing a new home for our space would also require relocation for approximately 3 months (could be as many as 4 months):

Storage rental:$450
House/apartment rental:$5775 (used supposed $1925/mo market rate)
Moving van (twice):$400
Security deposit:$500
__________
Total for out of house expenses:$7,125 (none covered under loan – all out of pocket)

Now, if you do not currently have a space at Contempo Marin, there is a whole slimy process that you will have to go through. Spaces do not just “become available”. Spaces are obtained by purchasing an existing home on a space. So, you have to shell out approximately $60,000 to lets say $100,000 for an old home and then you have to dispose of it. If you think that you can get around this fact by purchasing a home placed by one of the Santa Rosa dealers, you are mistaken. They have to do the same and include the purchase price of the old home in the final bill.

For this little experiment of purchasing a medium, doublewide mobile home with no frills, we are looking at the $187,125 to $227,125 range. The majority of this will be on a mortgage paid monthly just like on a site-built home, but some will be out of pocket. Mobile home loans are generally 15-20 year term with a higher percentage rate due to the added risk to the bank (i.e., greedy landlord raising rents to unbelievable amounts).

On units that are extra-wide or triple-wide, you actually have to hire the CHP to escort your home during transit from its construction factory to the mobile home park. Triple wide units are quite expensive and to have to add the cost of CHP escorting makes them even more expensive. The $329k home mentioned was likely a triple wide monster of a house – we do not know if the ad was for real or something fabricated by the owner to make their case look good?

Mobile homes in Petaluma are not that much less than those available at Contempo Marin.– same story, less desirable location.

Apartment rentals in the area searched on Yahoo real estate on 3/4/08:

Cresta Way (luxury apartments):$2019-$2309
402 D street:$1750
McInnis Park Apartments:$1600-$1625
Marinian Tower Apartments:$1450

Mobile home parks are NOT luxury facilities so please do not compare us to the Cresta Way apartments – those would be the brown monsters up on the hill with the million dollar views and amenities.

The key difference is that when you rent an apartment, the building is included in the rent – NOT JUST A PIECE OF LAND. We the homeowners of Contempo Marin have purchased our own homes.

Comparing apples to oranges doesn’t exactly work in the real world! Based on the fact that we not only have rent but mortgages too, the fair market value of the rental space seems to need to go down slightly!

Have a guy at work that lives in the Highlands of Marin Apartments (pink ones on the hill right down the street). He pays $1375 per month for a 2 bedroom. Says that the prices are probably a bit higher currently because there are not many open apartments.

The proposed $1925 a month rent at Contempo seems VERY excessive! We do not even get a structure with that price!?!

Let's do our homework people and get the judge the real numbers.

Just a question, Who ever said that living in a manufactured home community was meant to be "Affordable Housing"? Everyone has this ideas that manufactured home communities are for low income families, I think that is the problem!