There’s a growing concern among some Sequim residents that they are being priced out of their manufactured homes.

In recent months, residents of Parkwood Manufactured Housing Community in Carlsborg spoke before Sequim city councilors and Clallam County commissioners, asking for rent caps and code changes that could help low- and fixed-income residents pay for rent increases along with general cost increases of goods.

Chris Walker, a resident of Parkwood since 2013 and retired union organizer, said many residents in her 210-home development for senior citizens are on fixed incomes, in their 80s and 90s, and unable to do yard and house maintenance.

“We shy away from asking for help; it’s pride,” she said. “People can’t afford this, though.”

Owner Jon Gibson, a California resident, and Parkwood’s park manager Joel Erlitz with Park Investments LLC of Graham have not returned messages for comment.

In recent months, Parkwood residents received letters alerting them of $90 rent increases on their leased properties, effective sometime in 2023 depending on when residents purchased their home. This follows a $35 increase this year, and $5 more for water service, residents said.

For 88-year-old Sharon Lohman, she wrote to Gibson in 2017 asking for him to hold off on a similar price increase, saying her husband died in 2004 and that she only had her Social Security income.

“We age, we lose spouses, we lose income and sometimes due to these unavoidable circumstances we can be faced with losing what we have worked all our lives to build,” Lohman wrote.

Her rent was frozen at $465 about two months later, according to a letter she received.

Lohman said she spoke a few years later with Gibson and her rent and others’ were increased again. In September she received the $90 increase letter notification and will be paying $630 a month starting Jan. 1.

This year she wrote to Gibson again with a similar sentiment but hasn’t received a response.

“I’m going to go flat broke,” Lohman said.

Planning ahead, she will give up her car she uses for appointments and the grocery store, and stop ordering water jug deliveries.

“I’m probably better off than many others in this park,” she said. “I know they’re struggling just as much.”

Freeze and response

In April 2020, Gov. Jay Inslee froze rent increases for more than a year due to COVID-19. Some restrictions were lifted in July 2021.

Washington state continues not to have a rent cap. In Oregon, voters approved in 2019 a cap at 7 percent plus the West Coast Consumer Price Index (CPI), which stops rent increases in 2023 to be no more than 14.6 percent, according to the state’s website.

Walker said there’s little protection for manufactured home owners under Washington state law (RCW 59.20) related to rent.

Parkwood resident Ricky VanDoren Sites filed a complaint with Attorney General Bob Ferguson’s Consumer Resource Center about the rate increases on Nov. 21 “requesting relief from Elder Abuse/Financial Exploitation of Residents over 65” and that reasons given for increases were not factual related to increased taxes and water expenses.

In a Nov. 30 letter to residents, management referred Parkwood’s residents to the Washington Mobile Home Rental Assistance Program (MHRAP, Washingtonmhrap.com) if they sought help with the rent increase.

From the letter, staff wrote, “This outside service reviews the initial application and will forward their findings onto the property management group. Each applicant will be reviewed, and individual circumstances will be considered on a case-by-case basis. You are encouraged to apply regardless of the eligibility criteria listed on the form.”

Robert Evans with the MHRAP wrote via email that it’s a third party program sponsored by several Washington state manufactured home park owners.

“With the consumer price index/inflation hitting everyone hard, we are seeing tenants upset with rent increases recently,” he wrote.

“For over a decade rent increases (which are done typically based on the current CPI) have been very low as a result of the low CPI.”

He said their program is similar to the federal Housing and Urban Development Section 8 rental assistance program. According to the local application, some of the guidelines include meeting the Section 8 income guidelines, such as a one-person household not exceeding $27,650 a year; monthly housing costs must be at least 40 percent of monthly income of all residents in home, and the resident must not receive other rental assistance from any other program.

Evans wrote that “the program is set up to assist those tenants that need assistance, usually due to medical reasons, loss of a partner or many other things that happen in life.”

In a Dec. 12 letter to Parkwood residents, staff reiterated “that every effort is being taken to address each (application).”

Sequim Gazette photo by Matthew Nash Nancy “Nan” Suter of Parkwood Manufactured Housing Community said she’s been unable to look for more affordable housing with rent increases due to her decreasing eyesight. “I’ve heard of people moving. I can’t move,” Suter said. “I’ve asked around. I’m not able to look around. I don’t want to go into assisted living or an apartment. I like living independently. Staying where I am at is the best option.”

Testimony

Walker and fellow Parkwood resident Shannon Goose said they visited 209 of the 210 occupied Parkwood homes and 170 home owners signed a petition asking to meet with Gibson to discuss a compromise on rent increases.

Residents, however, have been told a meeting like that won’t be happening, Walker said.

During their outreach, they and other residents provided local, state and federal resource guides for rent, electricity, food, internet, phone and possible options for relocating to low income senior housing.

Goose said this year’s increases have worried residents, with some going back to work and/or giving up basic amenities like television, phone and/or travel.

Walker said the planned 8.7 percent Social Security increase that could help with food and prescriptions for residents will be negated by rent increases.

In speaking before local municipalities, Walker said they look to mobilize other manufactured home park residents to speak up and send letters to politicians asking for change.

Kathi Hulen, a semi-retired real estate agent, who lives in West Alder Estates manufactured home park in the City of Sequim, said she still works part-time after 50 years.

“What’s sad is this is the only affordable senior housing,” she said. “It breaks my heart.”

Going elsewhere isn’t viable, Walker and some advocates say.

Kathy Robinson of Hendrickson Community manufactured home park, also in Sequim, said “if residents can’t afford increases, they can’t afford to move their house either” as they may own the home but would have to pay for land and moving costs, too.

Nancy “Nan” Suter, 86, said she’s lived in Parkwood 16 years and is facing an array of health conditions.

“I can’t see or hear well and it’s like walking with a bag over my head,” she said.

Financially, “it’s tight,” Suter said, but for an ex-military wife she’s “learned how to move things around.”

She’s given up driving and yard maintenance, and a Christmas tree and decorations have remained up for three years, she said.

“I’ve heard of people moving; I can’t move,” Suter said.

“I’ve asked around. I’m not able to look around. I don’t want to go into assisted living or an apartment. I like living independently. Staying where I am at is the best option.”

She hopes the $90 increase doesn’t go forward.

Rosie von Engel of West Alder Estates in Sequim spoke before city councilors in November, sharing how even something like a home repair emergency could leave her homeless. While her rent is $440 a month and “reasonable,” von Engel said medical costs leave her with less than $900 a month in Social Security income.

Recently she had two outdoor faucets repaired for $650 and relies on food from “the kindness of strangers” and she worries about other unexpected costs, too. She’s been unable to find available low income housing in the county, von Engel said.

Roy Rauschkolb, a 62-year-old paraplegic, said he’ll begin paying about $1,200 a month in January to live in his late mother’s Parkwood home with about $630 a month remaining in Supplemental Security Income, he estimates.

“I’m finding out about a lot of assistance,” he said.

Paralyzed from the chest down in a 2001 car wreck, Rauschkolb, a former personal trainer and martial arts instructor, said he doesn’t want to complain, “but (the owners) are in a better position to take this inflation on than I am.”

“As time goes on, I’m gonna need more and more help … I’m lucky I have family,” he said.

Rauschkolb said he feels Gibson and his staff are “doing a great job” with the park, though.

“He deserves to make money. I’m just asking him to cap it down,” he said.

Roy Rauschkolb of Parkwood Manufactured Housing Community feels its owners and staff are doing a great job maintaining the park but he asks for recent rent increases to be decreased or capped to help people on fixed incomes like him.

Efforts

Through manufactured homes residents’ advocacy and others before, movement on helping with housing issues continues. In November, Sequim city councilors added rent stabilization for manufactured homes to their list of 2023 legislative priorities.

City staff was also directed to create a comprehensive outline of pros and cons for a mobile home zoning designation, and to streamline the Accessory Dwelling Unit approval process.

It was discussed in November but no decision was made on making a recommendation for use of funds for the Affordable Housing House Bill 1406 possibly for overdue rent relief, city staff said.

State representative Mike Chapman recently told the Port Angeles Business Association that housing was a priority for the state’s Democratic party but it focused more on streamlining city permitting processes.

Walker said they look to partner with Washington AARP to advocate for rent stabilization in the upcoming legislative session.

“There doesn’t seem to be an appetite for putting some kind of rent control specifically for 55 and older communities on the agenda,” she said.

“There are corporations or hedge funds buying these parks with the intent to make money off the backs of seniors living on fixed incomes.

“It’s been going on nationwide but just reached the peninsula.”

Walker said along with capping rents, she and other advocates seek specific legal language that protects manufactured home parks from being developed into something else, as well as transparent language for renters about rent increases and why they’re happening, similarly to that of apartment renters.