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Homeowners should unite, Feinstein says

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The only way for residents of Sedona Shadows to have any impact on policies at the 55-plus manufactured home community is to act together.

That's the message from Ron Feinstein, president of the Arizona Association of Manufactured Home and R.V. Owners.

"There are 12 million people living in manufactured home communities in the U.S.," he said. "In Delaware, they comprise one-fifth of the voters in the state. Voting as a block, they're able to control their legislature. As the membership continues to grow, we'll be able to increase our influence on the government with communications on a particular subject."

However, seniors on fixed incomes living in manufactured home communities in Arizonahave no recourse from this state when their landlords engage in excessive or predatory rent increases. .

"It seems we do not have caps on what a landlord can charge," said Assistant Minority Leader for Arizona's District 1, Andy Tobin, "but, we do have a relocation fund."

With a cap of $10,000, the relocation fund is one-third the estimated cost of moving a manufactured home, according to the Arizona Association of Manufactured Homes and R.V. Owners, and, in most cases, it fails to recapture the underlying equity when residents are forced to abandon them due to inability to pay lot fees.

AARP's Public Policy Institute is aware of the problem.

"Limited financial resources make residents of manufactured housing particularly vulnerable to increases in park rents and unexpected home repair cost," according to the AARP official Web site.

While some residents of Sedona Shadows are on fixed incomes and struggle to pay their monthly lot fees, there are others who have extensive financial resources, finding the increases in fees compatible, with their budget and appropriate for what they receive in return.

Frank Houck is one of those residents.

He and his wife moved to Sedona Shadows in 1997, just before ELS purchased the property and live on one of the park's largest lots.

"In 1997, we were paying $275 plus $7 for sewer and water," he said. "I just signed a five-year lease at $605. After adding in trash, sewer and water, cable, telephone, electric and propane, I'm up to $840 a month."

That amount isn't a burden since both he and his wife collect Social Security in addition to Houck's police pension and a tax-free endowment.

Eleven years ago, they paid $60,000 for their two-bedroom, two-bath modular which has 16-foot ceilings and is 33 feet wide.

"You'd pay $1,100 for something as nice in an apartment," he explained. "I figured by buying this house instead of an equivalent home in West Sedona, we saved $250,000, not including what we'd pay in property taxes. We're very happy with what we have here."

On the other hand, Houck is concerned about those who struggle to pay their rent.

"A lot of the people here are in a tight spot, no doubt about it," Houck said. "I sympathize with them."

Many of those being squeezed find the park highly desirable as well, resisting the idea of moving away from their friends and from a community where they feel safe and well-established, according to Patrick Nixon, regional director for the Arizona Association of Manufactured Home and R.V. Owners.

However, at present, those who need to move out for budgetary, health or any other reason, are unable to sell their dwellings due to already high lot fees that increase further upon turnover, according to former broker Terry Colella, who represented sellers in the park.

According to documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, ELS owns more than 300 parks containing more than 110,000 sites.

As a united constituency, the residents could lobby the government for protection, but for some of them, any sort of legislation may come too late.

Other large companies have bowed to social responsibility when concerns are raised by shareholders.

That includes Nike which was castigated, beginning in 1997, for their treatment of laborers in Asia.

On Oct. 18, 1997, protests against Nike were conducted in 13 countries, 25 states and 50 communities across the U.S., according to a report in the Sonoma County Independent.

Since then, socially responsible investing has grown in favor, according to The Social Investment Forum, a U.S. national nonprofit membership association for professionals, firms and organizations dedicated to advancing the practice and growth of socially responsible investing.

"Socially responsible investing is thriving in the U.S., growing at a faster pace than the broader universe of all investment assets under professional management," the forum wrote in its 2007 Executive Summary on investment trends. "Roughly 11 percent of assets under professional management in the U.S. are now involved in SRI."

"From 2005 to 2007 alone, SRI assets increased more than 18 percent while the broader universe of professionally managed assets increased less than 3 percent," according to the summary.

According to the latest proxy statement filed by ELS, as of March 6, five of its six largest shareholders are Morgan Stanley, holding 2,950,952 shares or 11.7 percent; Deutsche Bank AG holding 2,644,301 shares or 10.5 percent; Cohen & Steers holding 2,241,182 shares or 8.9 percent, The Vanguard Group holding 1,805,943 or 7.2 percent; and the General Motors Employees Global Group Pension Trust holding 1,503,765 shares or 6 percent.

Those shareholders could be made aware of the plight facing ELS tenants. The Social Investing Forum also encourages direct communications with people serving on a company's board of directors.

Sheli Z. Rosenberg has been a director of ELS since August 1996, according to SEC documents, and the lead director of the company since 2002.

She is also currently a director for CVS Caremark Corporation, an owner and operator of drug stores that is committed to social responsibility, according to a 2008 report issued by the company.

As a group, ELS tenants could leverage their combined purchasing power to influence Rosenberg and CVS.

Until state laws are reformed to provide protection to those on



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© 2009 Sedona Red Rock News Sedona, Arizona. All Rights Reserved. This content, including derivations, may not be stored or distributed in any manner, disseminated, published, broadcast, rewritten or reproduced without express, written consent from DAS.

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