August 12, 2005
In Oregon, the dramatic increase in manufactured home
communities being purchased by developers for “re-development”
as site built housing has caused quite a stir with residents
and politicians alike. Home builders are buying
these communities, evicting the existing manufactured
home owners with a 365 closure notice and the residents
are forced to move their homes during this one year closure
period.
In response to the outcries from residents and their local
legislators, we support the following language being added
as an amendment to existing legislation slated to pass
shortly:
1.Direct Oregon Housing and Community Services Division
(OHCSD), within its current budget, to operate a voluntary
database of park vacancies. This should dovetail nicely
with HB 2247’s required registration, since it will
allow OHCSD to contact and solicit park owner’s
cooperation.
2.Grant a state capital gains tax break to park owners
who sell their parks to resident groups. This is an idea
we have discussed for more than a year, although we were
thinking that it would have to be a federal tax break
to have the necessary impact. (U.S. Rep. Darlene Hooley,
who is following the closures in her district, may pursue
this idea in Congress.)
3.Revive the old but currently unfunded state tax credit
for residents who are forced to move by a closure, and
increase the amount from $1,500 to $10,000. ORS 90.635,
316.153.
4.Prohibit local governments from imposing age restrictions
on manufactured homes moved from a closing park into another
park. ORS 197.485 already does this, but only for parks
located on land designated for medium density residential
development (8 to 10 units per acre); we want to expand
this to parks located on low density (single family housing)
land.
The State of Oregon and various elected officials are
undecided as to whether they are in favor of this amendment
or not. The tax credit portion costs the state money
at a time when the state government is already struggling
with myriad financial concerns. We will keep you
posted as this amendment moves through the legislative
process.
