“Across the Northwest, some families will spend Christmas in rented mobile homes where the living conditions are marginal at best and dangerous at worst,” Austin Jenkins writes in the article. “So who’s inspecting these manufactured homes? It turns out that they fall into a regulatory gray area.”
An example cited was the Evergreen Mobile Estates near Shelton, Washington. “The word ‘estate’ conjures images of manicured lawns and sweeping terraces, but Evergreen Mobile Estates has a very different feel,” Jenkins editorializes. “The moss-streaked single-and-double wides stand cheek-by-jowl, along with the occasional broken window and a general look of dilapidation.”
One couple who lives in this community said that the home they’re renting needs a lot of repairs, but the reason they live there is that it’s the only place they could afford.
Aretta Darling and her fiancé Dennis McCallum have been living at Evergreen Mobile Estates since May. They pay $675 monthly rental.
McCallum showed how the front wall was detaching from the floor. He then shut the front door and pointed out light coming in through gaps between the door and the wall.
“You can see the light all the way through the doors,” he said. “It’s hard to keep it warm in here because of all this.” To keep warm, the couple sometimes lights a fire in the wood stove that occupies a corner of what is described as a cramped living room.
McCallum believes the unit is borderline habitable. He’s been reluctant to call the county and complain. “I’ve thought about it,” he said. “If I do that then we probably wouldn’t have a place to live because they’d end up condemning this place.”
Debbie Riley, the environmental health manager at Mason County Public Health, said her department deals with outdoor health issues only. When it comes to the interior condition of rental properties, “…Mason County Public Health hasn’t stepped into that arena.” At the county building department, the lone code enforcement officer said she has a backlog of 1,500 complaints from across the county.
There seems to be a degree of confusion about what agency has jurisdiction over mobile and manufactured home communities. The Washington Department of Labor and Industries has some jurisdiction over manufactured homes. Agency spokesman Matthew Erlich said, “There’s no doubt that there are substandard mobile home parks out there, but this agency doesn’t have jurisdiction over the condition of the homes”…”That would be up to the local authority.”
Leslie Owen, a senior attorney with the Northwest Justice Project in Olympia, said Washington’s Landlord-Tenant Act does offer renters some avenues of recourse, but “they’re so complicated very few tenants can make use of them.” Owen said renters often just put up with the conditions, because if they start withholding rent, they will get evicted.
“In court, these people try to tell judges all about the horrible conditions that exist,” she said, “but it doesn’t matter because a judge is basically saying ‘you didn’t pay your rent, and I don’t have any choice.” Owen wants to see more towns follow the example of Seattle and Pasco, cities that require inspections of rental properties.
While the media often wants to point to the extreme cases, as usual, there is typically another side to the story.
Darlene Pennock, the co-owner of Evergreen Mobile Estates feels that her company is filling a need for affordable housing in Mason County, Washington. “It’s a constant battle to keep mobile homes that are 30, 40, even 50 years old inhabitable,” she said, “especially because of the wear and tear tenants put on them.” However, she rejected the suggestion that her rentals are sub-standard.
“They might be old, and they might not be pretty, but they’re affordable, and we take care of them,” she said.
Washington law requires that landlords keep their rentals “fit for human habitation” and “in reasonably good repair.” Pennock insisted her mobile homes pass this test, although she knows not everyone agrees. “I’ve been called a slumlord,” she admitted. “Yes, more than once.”
Pennock added, “I can’t let it get to me because I know I am not doing that.”
As for the problems her current tenants pointed out, Pennock said she was unaware of those issues and promised to have her maintenance person “get right on it.”
Since then the issues with the wall and stove have been addressed.
What the Media often Misses
What often falls through the cracks on such media accounts are the blurry details of what is a mobile home and what is a manufactured home.
As most regular MHProNews readers know, no mobile homes have been built in the U.S. since June 15, 1976. Those pre-HUD Code homes did in a number of cases have construction and safety issues. The purpose of the federal standards was precisely to successfully address those old mobile home issues, since the HUD Code went into effect.
So when Pennock herself says a number of the homes are 40 or 50 years old, those certainly “mobile homes.” Issues like floor, insulation and other challenges will be more common with those older mobile homes than they would be with a properly maintained manufactured home. Who says? Insurance and other safety studies.
Further, those familiar with the rental of C or lower class apartments or older conventional rental housing can cite exactly these same sorts of concerns Jenkin’s article raises.
Still, the industry ought to do a good job of caring for their rental inventory and communities. The bad press, fines and other problems that may result often costs far more than taking good care of the home owners would in the first place. ##
(Photo Credits: Austin Jenkins, Northwest News Network)
