Generation Gap Divides Mobile Home Park Residents

When 62-year-old Gilbert Hoscheit moved into the 400 Mobilestates mobile home park in Santa Paula five years ago, he looked forward to spending his retirement years in a community of people over the age of 55.

Hoscheit, with six grown children of his own, chose a park that did not allow families. He said he wanted a place where children would not be “underfoot all the time.”

But that is not how things worked out. Like a growing number of mobile home parks in the county, the 165-space 400 Mobilestates is now open for families in compliance with federal anti-discrimination laws.

Many of the older residents--like Hoscheit--complain that the families bring noise, cramped space, fewer parking spaces and other problems typical of family life.

“We made it into a family park,” Hoscheit said, “and there are no facilities for children. It is almost in worse shape for families than it was for the elderly.”

Because of soaring house prices and high rents, mobile home parks in Ventura County are fast becoming a popular choice for young families purchasing their first house.

Ventura County has 106 mobile home parks with facilities for a total of 10,319 mobile homes, said Kathie Parrish, spokeswoman for the California Department of Housing and Community Development. Every city except Ojai has at least one mobile home park within city limits.

Families need a place to live, longtime mobile home owners say, but mobile home parks, which have narrow streets and small yard space, were essentially built for older people.

The majority lack the space for playgrounds or sandboxes, and children out in the streets risk the threat of being hit by passing cars, they complain. In most cases, children require adult supervision to use the parks’ recreational facilities, such as swimming pools, clubhouses and tennis courts.

“There is no place for children to play. They play in the streets. Children are children,” said Helen Harding, 81, of The Victorian Park in Ventura.

The Victorian Park, which once had a minimum age of 50, was converted in 1983. Today, more than 60% of the residents are young families, Harding said.

“The community spirit has entirely been disrupted,” said Harding’s husband, Ken, 84, a 15-year Victorian Park resident. Ken Harding said the pace of families moving in has quickened during the past two years.

Ethel Geschke, 71, said she would like to move out--as others have--but cannot afford the county’s high rents.

“Now, we are stuck,” she said with a sigh. “Kids get on your nerves when you are old.”

Not all longtime residents are unhappy with the changes. Some say the families are acceptable additions to the mobile home parks.

“We are still here,” said Wesley Kent, 80, of Ojai Oaks Mobile Home Park in an unincorporated area near Ojai. Ojai Oaks recently allowed families, “and we still like it,” Kent said.

Catherine Lovato, 21, said she and her husband moved into a mobile home park because they could not afford to purchase a house.

Last summer, the Lovatos, who have a 7-week-old son, bought a $54,000, three-bedroom mobile home in 400 Mobilestates. The new mother, a bank employee, said she pays a total of $600 in finance payments and rent space per month and views her home as a long-term investment.

“It is a real bargain. It is a good starter home for young people like me and my husband,” she said.

For the same reason, Rosalinda Mendoza, 38, her husband and two sons went the mobile home route five years ago.

The Mendozas were one of the first families to move to The Victorian Park after being forced from their apartment in Montalvo.

“If it were not for the mobile home parks, a lot of us would be in dire straits, because we can’t afford $600 and $700 rents. Families especially,” she said.

The young parents say they understand the concerns of the older park residents but have had no real problems aside from complaints about noise and parking spaces.

“Noise is a problem with the senior citizens here,” Mendoza said, but it is something no one can do much about.

“We live close together, and tempers do flare, and parties do get loud,” she said. “But I get along very well with the seniors, and my children do too.”

These sentiments are echoed by families at other parks.

Cheryl Velez, her husband and three children in July moved into The Colony Mobile Home Park in Oxnard. Velez said she likes her neighbors but realizes some are uneasy about the number of guests she has over and how they clog the streets with their cars. But these occurrences are common to young people, she said.

“And we are young,” Velez said.

Because of the complaints, the management strictly enforces noise and parking rules for families, Velez said, but it permits more leeway for the older residents.

Some families admit they were initially leery of moving into what had been retiree communities. Carol Heller, 29, of Villa Capri Mobile Estates in Oxnard heard that some residents left rather than live with families and that some who remained were opposed to the conversion.

But Heller, the mother of a 7-month-old daughter and a toddler, said she and her husband have had no confrontations. Heller, who does not work outside the home, said she makes a point of watching over her 3-year-old daughter to make certain the child does not bother anyone.

In the final analysis, families still need a place to live, and some say mobile homes are the route to take. “Let’s face it,” Mendoza said, “we are all entitled to live. We have got to live somewhere.”

Heller is hopeful that the attitudes of some older homeowners will change with time.

“I wish more mobile home parks would open to families,” she said. “It is just terrible to keep a certain thing to one group of people. They were once our age.”

The change in mobile home demographics has fueled tensions between park owners and homeowners, who have been at odds before over the issue of rent stabilization. Park owners typically rent out land and facilities to tenants who have bought the mobile home on the site. Rent space in the county ranges from $130 to $550 a month.

There are concerns, however, that elderly mobile home owners--many of them vocal advocates of rent control--are being squeezed out of the market, because park owners can make more profit from families.

“Park owners are trying to force the older people out so they can get more money out of two-income families,” said Charlene Hall, former regional manager of the Golden State Mobile Home Owners League, a statewide advocacy group representing mobile home owners.

But park owners say they are only trying to make a fair profit in a tightly regulated county.

“Ventura County is the most rent-controlled county in the state,” said David Evans, regional director of the Western Mobile Home Assn., which represents park owners. “And we are not looking at, for the most part, low-income people.”

Both park owners and homeowners attribute the rise in park conversions to a recent California appellate court ruling that involves mobile home rent control and new federal housing legislation.

In Hall vs. Santa Barbara, it was ruled that the city could not limit rent increases when mobile homes are sold. The response of several Ventura cities was to allow park owners to increase rents after the sale of a mobile home, said Kim Hocking, county program administrator.

Park owners took a hard look at the family market and reasoned that families could probably pay higher rents. Those in the industry say it is simply a question of making more money.

“If you are a mobile home park owner who is strictly concerned with making a profit and not concerned with the feelings of residents,” said Bill Schweinfurth, director of a company that manages five mobile home parks in the county, “you would be better off opening the park to all ages.”

Bill Kilduff, chairman of the Ventura City Mobile Home Owners Coordinating Council, said park owners should focus on building more parks rather than squeezing families into existing parks.

“There are no new parks for families to go to. That is the problem. New parks would be much more modern,” Kilduff said.

That is a good idea but will not happen in the near future, Evans said. High land prices and a push for commercial development have leveled off growth in the mobile home industry, he said.

“It is not economically feasible to make mobile home parks,” Evans said. “You can make more money from commercial uses. Generally speaking, Ventura County real estate is expensive.”

So, while families continue to be drawn to the parks for their economic values, longtime residents say they are increasingly finding mobile home parks too expensive.

“I can’t afford to live in a mobile home park,” said Hoscheit, who said he plans to leave for Wisconsin or attempt to enter subsidized senior housing.