Bill to protect seniors’ roommate options considered in Olympia

OLYMPIA — The Washington State Legislature took a step last week toward making senior housing costs more stable.

House Bill 1204, which passed the House Housing Committee Jan. 30, would allow residents of senior mobile and manufactured home communities to have at least one roommate, as long as that roommate also meets the age requirements of the park.

“It’s a national problem with mobile homes, especially senior mobile home communities, that the properties are being purchased, and in some instances, there has been a lack of maintenance and upgrades in the communities,” said State Rep. Carolyn Eslick, R-Sultan, who introduced the bill. “And that new person or corporation starts doing all the work, and then they start increasing the land leases.”

It’s fairly standard for a tenant in a senior manufactured home park to sign an agreement that they won’t have anyone living in the home with them except a caregiver, Eslick said. But when the lot rent increases, a senior homeowner is often left with a home they can’t afford to keep.

“In the past, it’s always been a good place for retirement,” Eslick said. “If you’re on Social Security, you could live in a mobile home park and survive for your term. Well, because they can raise that lease, they are raising it to the point where the homeowner now cannot afford to live and pay for their utilities and the land lease that has been implemented.

“My friend had barely enough money to buy her mobile home a year ago when she bought it in a park in Everett,” Eslick said. “It started off at $700 and she could make that. And then within six months, it went up to $900. January one, it’s at $1,400. That is her Social Security check.”

Washington has no limit to how much rent can be increased, according to WashingtonLawHelp.org, which means that a manufactured home park owner can charge pretty much whatever it wants to, as long as it gives notice to the tenants. That may be difficult enough for, say, apartment dwellers, but owners of manufactured homes don’t have the option of just packing their furniture and moving elsewhere. According to moving.com, it can cost as much as $14,000 to move a manufactured home from one property to another, assuming the home is even in movable condition.

“In four years, these corporations can quadruple their money, because now the land lease warrants the increase in the value of the property,” Eslick said. “It’s squeezing out the senior citizens, because they can’t move their mobile home. If they get behind on those leases, they’re done. They have to move, and they could be homeless.”

Allowing roommates could allow the resident to defray some of those costs, Eslick said. The homeowner could rent a room to another senior in exchange for money, or for groceries or housework or whatever is needed.

“We could do this for the seniors, to help them be able to increase their income,” Eslick said. “It’s twofold: They increase their income so they can keep up with their land lease, but also, it’s a social thing for them. They now have somebody living with them, and people live longer when there’s more relationship building.”