Fixing the mobile-home park
Imagine: You live in a cramped, decaying structure. The brown water that emerges from your tap isn't safe to drink, sewage is visibly accumulating in your front yard, and being outdoors after dark isn't safe. Where are you? The backwaters of some poor, developing nation? No.
Welcome to the Regency of Iowa Mobile Home Park, located just 10 minutes south of downtown Iowa City.
A week ago today, the Des Moines Register broke a special report that grabbed the attention of people across the state. It widely publicized the stories of an unfortunate populace whose troubles were first highlighted by the Iowa Valley Habitat for Human ity in a March report titled "Study of Older Manufactured Homes in Johnson County: Too Dangerous to Ignore," said Mark Patton, the executive director of the Iowa Valley Habitat for Humanity.
"We focused on the older mobile homes because we often get calls to come help repair the leaking roof, broken doors, weak floors — particle-board material that swells and becomes moldy when it gets wet — and lack of fire-egress windows," Patton said. "We know of families with children who have to wear blankets on their shoulders all winter and who have to avoid some rooms where the floor has a hole. In addition, the elderly often end up 'trapped' as the mobile homes are not handicapped accessible — outdoor steps, narrow doors — and are not able to move out."
Immediate action is required. In the face of blatant disregard for human dignity and allegedly fraudulent business practices that are being investigated by Johnson County, there is much to do.
Thankfully, the Johnson County Board of Supervisors, the governing body of rural Johnson County, seems poised for action.
"It's frustrating that government has to step in like this and create an ordinance that will help clean up a mobile-home park, but enough is enough," said Supervisor Terrence Neuzil. "Given the latest in a series of problems identified at Regency, it's now essential to create an ordinance that will inspect all mobile homes that we are allowed to by the Iowa Code and enforce any unsafe living code violations."
We agree. A strong, responsible ordinance that empowers county officials to inspect mobile-home properties without encroaching on privacy rights is essential to safeguard underprivileged families in rural Johnson County. This is no simple issue, however.
"Generally, [mobile home] residents rent the lot but own the home," said Supervisor Janelle Rettig. "But not everyone [in Regency] owns their home, and few of them are actually mobile, so a lot of these people are really in a quandary because they can't move."
The nature of mobile-home parks, which often contain a mixture of owned and rented properties, complicates matters. Three of the supervisors pointed out that you can't just singularly target mobile homes. The debate, it seems, will come down to rental properties versus owned properties and complaint-based versus biannual inspections, said Supervisor Rod Sullivan, who has said he's working with Sen. Joe Bolkcom, D-Iowa City, to address the issue.
"I've been working with the Planning and Zoning Department and Sen. Bolkcom for a change in state code that would allow counties to enforce state public-health standards on our level," Sullivan said. "Currently, that's under the authority of the [Department of Natural Resources], so the county just hasn't had any jurisdiction. If we could change the state policy to allow the county to enforce that, we could help out where the state is spread too thin."
This seems like a sound policy solution to a desperately deficient status quo. The ordeal that the occupants of this park have endured serves as a grim reminder of the harsh realities of free, unregulated markets.
"There is some interest by the county to oversee public wastewater and public water wells as it relates to both larger subdivisions and now Regency Mobile Home Park. [Natural Resources] regulates public water supplies and systems, and we need a legislative change in order for [Natural Resources] to be able to regulate that responsibility to counties," Bolkcom said. "We've had a couple meetings on that topic, and we continue to discuss what that legislation would look like."
Enacting substantive rental-property reform needs to be a high priority for local and state policymakers. Patton of Habitat for Humanity has laid out a four-step plan to deal with these issues.
"I would like to see a four-step program put into place:
a) All mobile-home owners would have to produce the title to their mobile homes once per year. This would help collect property taxes that are not being paid now as well as give the owners confidence that they, in fact, own the mobile homes.
b) All pre-1976 mobile homes would either have to be brought up to current housing-code standards or be purchased by the county and destroyed. The amount ($2,000-$5,000 per mobile home) would be used by the owner to either purchase another home or be used as a security deposit for a rental.
c) All mobile-home-park owners would be responsible to have a nuisance standard where abandoned mobile homes, cars, furniture, etc., would not be permitted and would need to be cleaned up promptly when legal notice is given.
d) I would like the Legislature to allow 60 days as the minimum time to vacate if proper notice is given and the reasons for eviction are for failure to pay rent, using the mobile home in the commission of a crime, not cleaning up a nuisance in a timely fashion, or excessive noise/traffic."
Mark Patton
executive director of Iowa Valley Habitat for Humanity
Our primary concern is that Regency, one of the largest rental companies in the state, is ducking its responsibilities, both business and moral. When we called to get its perspective, the official we spoke to responded, "We have no comment whatsoever. Absolutely none."
A refusal to engage in an open dialogue about this issue is not surprising but still disappointing. Luckily, this is not a poor, destitute country. This is America. We are all protected by the rule of law.
We have no doubt whether the ongoing investigation will be properly handled and that those guilty of criminal misconduct will be brought to justice.
Keep your eye on this one, folks. We're betting that the revelations are just getting started.
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