MENDOCINO Co., 4/23/18 — Residents of two Willits area mobile home parks will be staging a rent-hike protest at the park across from Willits City Hall (Bud Snider Park), at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday. The residents of park complain that rents have risen dramatically, and capricious fees have been billed, since new owners took control. They also allege a pattern of harassment from the new management. To this end the residents have organized and begun to push for a rent stabilization law in Willits, modeled after a law that has been on the books for years in Ukiah.
Protests were also held at the park on April 11, the videos of which are embedded at the bottom of this article.
A flyer being circulated to announce the protest ends with the plea, “Help us not become homeless!!![sic]”
A flyer produced by resident and organizer Cheryl Abney.
Early last summer the ownership of two parks, Wagon Wheel Mobile Home Park in the City of Willits and Valley Oaks Mobile Home Park in the unincorporated part of the Little Lake Valley, were sold to a company controlled by Flyer’s Energy, which owns the gas station chain. Public records show that a small tangle of limited liability companies were created to hold the properties, and a management company Boavida was also created.
Boavida is the company that directly interacts with the residents, and is reference in most of the signs in this video. The videos were filmed, by our reporter Kate Maxwell:
Part I
Part II
Adrian Fernandez Baumann, [email protected]
I understand that people are angry about rent raises, but I don’t think that justifies calling the new managers “greedy rich pigs.”
Also, did anyone mention the condition of the mobile home park a couple years ago? I heard someone mention that the previous condition of the park was atrocious. For instance, there was sewage backing up in the laundromat (which made it so people couldn’t do laundry for months), there were people hanging around the park dealing drugs in broad daylight, there was trash strewn everywhere, and there were several instances in which different dogs were loose without attention from an owner. I don’t know if the new owners are just trying to make things better than that and they have to raise the rent because they can’t absorb the addition cost, or if there is a level of avarice involved (due to the housing shortage, and landowners taking advantage of peoples’ desperate situations), but it would be something worth looking into imho.
That aside, rent control could also be beneficial for the area. These are my thoughts.
Thanks MV!
Oh..maybe crooks would better describe ri h people who take money from the poor..they DONT CARE what the park looks like as long as they get their money!
my rent for a single-wide…I bought here in the Park…..769.00$ and that was an increase of 22% even after S608 passed which is rent control….I went to all the higher ups only to suspect now…..all involved!!! I am very afraid because i spoke up and now feel under attack.
Western Hills Mobile Homes Estates….here in Rainier Oregon…now owned by Boavida.
Yes they did the LLC and again the whole town knew and did nothing to help.
Shame.
Anyone out there selling Tents? cause we are gonna need them; in America, we can no-longer afford to live in a trailer……..were more and more jobs are only volunteer for money making non-profits. Maybe I am wrong? am I?
Hello Cheryl,
You hit it right on the HEAD, filthy rich pigs is an understatement by far. I especially know this after a number of Evictions I’ve help with over the past few years including my own and my 77 year old widowed father living in the same park as I. He was here 13 years, and paid his rent every month on time(never late) and after BoaVida took over in 2019, the rents were going up. Most here are on a fixed income paying $500. a month or a bit more. If you played nicely they wouldn’t raise it twice a year, but once a year. My father went from that to 650 a month in 2 years. mine 525 a monthto now 678 a month 2+ years. They evicted my father because they didn’t like that he was a stubborn man, and voiced his opinion. he got sick with cancer the month they evicted him and he passed away in a hotel 3 months later. they would let him live with me. So he was alone and gave up on his treatment. Now ive been fighting BoaVida for the past 472 days. No attorney, no experience, just a lot of law books and case research and Ive been beating their ass, a company attorney with 30 years experience representing them. Funny the first time in front of a Judge, his partner stated, “we should be able to wrap this up in 15 Min. I said in your dreams, and today is day 473. Embarassing for a 30 year attorney wouldn’t you say. They are as crooked as the Ud judges that are in bed with them, but follow the law and they will slip up. They have evicted immigrants during covid and took their hoe and sold it to a new tenant. Thats my next case to reactivate and give my time too. I do this out of the kindness of my own heart because its unfair and greedy what they do and they hide behind the LLC’s to protect their personal assets. Shame, Shame, and they fold up a company if they loose and open another under a new name. The company is disgusting as to the treatment of the citizens in this country, and I hope they loose it all soon, and feel the homelessness of the people they wronged. May God have Mercy on their Souls, (“NOT”)
Ken