Priced Out

(gentle music) (gentle dramatic music) - They oughta just put dirt over us and bury us all, because actually we feel like we're in prison.

- [Resident] I had to fight every notice.

(resident speaking in Spanish) - You're feeding off of and preying upon people who can't afford that much for your enrichment.

- Landlords cannot get away with that.

They should not be getting away with that.

(gentle dramatic music) - I'm Jaelynn Grisso for Cascade PBS.

Our newsroom has spent the last year investigating complaints from mobile park tenants across Washington.

They say the owners of their mobile home parks have instituted changes in recent years that have significantly impacted their quality of life and, in some cases, have put them at risk of losing their homes.

In this special report, we tell you about the Hurst & Son ownership group and the larger trends behind what tenants say they're experiencing.

- [Resident] Hey, pay attention, guys.

- Thank you.

- If you guys can gather a little closely, 'cause we don't have a microphone.

- Hi, I'm Elva Simmons and you already know Arty Party here.

We are here, we are members of the AMHO, and that's the Washington State Association for Manufactured Home Owners.

And what we do is we come in to these communities and help you file complaints with the issues that you have in the park.

You've been charged fines, $65 fines, I'll tell you right now, it's illegal.

It's been dropped to $20 fines.

And you guys have been charged the full 65, right?

- Yes.

- Yeah.

- Yes?

Does your lease say that utilities are covered in your rent payment?

- It changed this year.

- They keep changing it.

- Because they change it- - [Resident] They change it, every year they change it.

- Yeah.

- Every month they change it.

- Oh, I need to be quiet.

- They haven't.

- A lot of upset people in both languages, so we'll try to get 'em back on track here.

- [Jaelynn] Elva Simmons also lives in a Hurst & Son mobile home park.

And after experiencing many of these issues herself, she's thrown herself into advocacy.

- When I first started and I was listening to all these complaints that these people were going through, a lot of them touched me, but I knew I couldn't cry in front of them, and so I would grab my service dogs and would go down to the Gleed Park.

And I'd turn them loose, and then I would just scream, and yell, and cry, because I was so mad at how these people were being treated.

Sunshine, don't eat the grass.

I had a five-bedroom house over on Second Avenue.

And the only reason I sold it is because I lost my oldest son, and he needed a kidney transplant and it didn't work.

- [Jaelynn] Why did you choose this park?

- It was the only thing I could find that was in my price range.

I still can't afford it, but there isn't anywhere to go.

So that's what drives me, that people like me can't find a place to go, so we're stuck.

- Simmons lives here in the Sun Tides Park near Yakima, and just down the street from her is Art Garza, a recently retired healthcare advocate and interpreter who enjoys gardening and playing music.

He shares his home with his 89-year-old mother.

- Bienvenidos a la casa de Garza.

Welcome to Garza House.

(upbeat guitar music) There was an opportunity to join AMHO and it came knocking at my door.

I said, "Oh my gosh, I was just thinking about doing something rather than be retired."

I was literally in tears, because I said, "God answered my prayer!"

And I said, "I wanna do something, I wanna help people.

I wanna help people.

These individuals that think that there's no hope."

(upbeat guitar music ends) (laughs) Just big old stuff like that.

- [Jaelynn] Tenants say, that under previous ownership, rent increases were gradual.

But since Hurst & Son bought their park, they've seen unexpected and drastic increases in their rent.

With so many on fixed incomes, this can put them at risk of losing their home.

- Every day you wake up and you just, you worry.

(resident speaking in Spanish) How much is it gonna go up?

How much?

- So many people are economically evicted.

- They're trying not only to harass people, but to put fear in them.

- Personally threatened with eviction many times over.

- Took a mental toll.

I was exhausted.

- If I didn't have the resources that I have, this process would've been near impossible.

- It's almost impossible.

And just get behind and try and catch up when you can.

- I'm in my vehicle, sleeping in my vehicle.

- Simmons, Garza, and thousands of others, live in mobile home parks owned by Hurst & Son, LLC, a property management company based in Port Orchard, Washington.

Owned by Caleb and Kristina Romack, the company lists mobile home operations going back to 1998.

By 2014, they began expanding, acquiring parks mostly in Eastern Washington until 2019.

At that point, they owned 27 parks throughout the state.

But, since 2020, Hurst has spent millions acquiring 33 more parks and doubling their holdings to 60 throughout the state of Washington.

State data shows that Hurst & Son now owns the land underneath one out of every 40 mobile home park units.

As the company has taken over these refuges of affordable housing, tenants and advocates say Hurst & Son has aggressively increased lot rent, imposed new fees, and significantly cut back on community maintenance.

So the seniors and other low-income residents who live in these parks began fighting back, organizing into tenants associations, informing other Hurst residents of their rights, and appealing to public officials.

The Washington State Attorney General's Office opened an investigation into the growing number of complaints last year.

Ishbel Dickens is a retired attorney in Seattle who spent her career advocating for mobile home tenants.

She still does some of that work.

- So the issues in Hurst parks are dire.

They're really putting a lot of pressure on homeowners and really trying to ignore their pleas for help.

- Park residents face unique challenges because they own their homes, but not the lot underneath of them.

So the dozens of residents in these parks have to pay for their lot rent to the owners of the park.

Dickens says that this makes the park owners have a distinct amount of power over their tenants.

- [Ishbel] They can impose fees and charges on an individual homeowner for a variety of frivolous issues, and there's no cap, particularly, on what those fees can be.

- [Jaelynn] But, of course, the increases in rent are particularly devastating.

- So many people are economically evicted simply because the landlord can raise the rent as much as they want, whenever they want.

At least, in a manufactured housing community, could only be once a year, which, okay, some people have rents going up from 300 a month to 1,000 a month, unbelievable.

You just cannot absorb that amount of increase.

- The Romacks did not respond to numerous requests to interview them about their business practices.

However, a company manager did provide a one-page statement.

According to Hurst & Son, many aging mobile home parks are at a crossroads because the land underneath them is often more valuable than the park itself, especially as infrastructure ages.

As an example, Hurst & Son says that, "An original owner may sell a park when new sewer updates are needed due to EPA code requirements.

The owner may not be able to come up with the money and sells to Hurst & Son who then pays for the updates."

The company argues that, "Increases in rent help cover the cost of what is needed to keep the community sustainable."

The company stated, "While our aim is to preserve mobile home parks, Hurst & Son is not a low-income housing provider.

At the same time, we want our communities to be mixed income and we don't want improvements to displace anyone."

(Amado speaking in Spanish) Mill Pond community residents said that after Hurst & Son took over, they started charging extra for utilities that were previously included in the lot rent, and that's despite repeated unannounced water service shutdowns.

Art Garza has helped advocates connect with Spanish-speaking residents, some of whom complained Hurst often provides important and time-sensitive communications in English only.

(Maria speaking in Spanish) - We've been here for a long time and we've seen all the (censored).

- Yeah.

- And, you know, they're taking advantage of these people that don't speak English and stuff.

They're really doing that.

- Well, we- - And our rent, we paid 200 bucks a month here when we first got here.

Now we're paying almost $800.

- [Jaelynn] Elva Simmons also took us to White Dove, another Hurst & Son park in Yakima.

We arrived expecting to talk with just one resident at his home.

But once neighbors heard we were there, the group grew to about 10 residents, all waiting for their turn to tell us what they've experienced in interview after interview until well after the sun went down.

- Why am I overpaying when it's city water, and you're supposed to provide that for me.

(resident speaking in Spanish) (resident speaking in Spanish) (resident speaking in Spanish) - [Jaelynn] At the group center is Guillermo Limon, a resident of White Dove and a father to a 6-year-old girl with autism.

He said he's been fined multiple times for having toys, like a kitty pool or a swing set, in his yard.

(Guillermo speaking in Spanish) (Guillermo continues speaking in Spanish) (Jaelynn speaking in Spanish) (Guillermo speaking in Spanish) Ishbel Dickens says this is another page from the playbook of large ownership groups, which a state law here in Washington should prevent.

- So any landlord who's coming up with these arbitrary rules that have nothing to do with everyone's health and safety, like you have to get rid of your kids' toys, those are arbitrary and capricious, and those, I think, I would challenge.

I would go to the AG and say, "Look, these rules they're enforcing, and they're not enforcing them fairly across the board."

Yes, landlords cannot get away with that.

They should not be getting away with that.

- We just have to work together and bring to attention what's going on.

- [Jaelynn] Residents of Leisure Manor Mobile Park created a tenants association in 2022 after Hurst & Son bought their community in Grays Harbor County.

They have been organizing ever since.

Deb Wilson and Caroline Hardy, the president and secretary of the association respectively, told us about the difficulties tenants face while showing us around the park, which is designated for residents 55 and older.

- This is our forever home, we thought, but we don't know.

Things are getting worse and worse and eating up the savings, and social security just doesn't cut it.

- They oughta just put dirt over us and bury us all, because actually we feel like we're in prison.

You know, we can't afford to go on an extra day trip to see the grandkids.

We can't afford all the medications we need.

- [Jaelynn] Like Simmons and Garza, the bulk of their organizing involves gathering residents to submit their complaints through the Manufactured Housing Dispute Resolution Program.

It's a program run by the Attorney General's Office meant to gather and evaluate these complaints from mobile home owners.

- It's hard for homeowners, who don't have resources, to challenge the Hursts of the world.

And so the Alternative Dispute Resolution Program run by the AG's Office has been the go-to since it was formed.

- [Jaelynn] The program is designed to mediate between landlords and tenants of mobile or manufactured homes.

Either can submit a complaint, then the Office works with both parties to find a common solution.

- If the program reaches the point where we're convinced these parties can't agree, then the next step is kind of moving more into enforcement.

- That gives the Attorney General's Office some discretion, but there are clear limitations to the program as well.

- We enforce the law as written, but we don't write it, and I think that's a source of frustration for tenants.

- [Jaelynn] Rent increases are a clear example of the program's limitations, because, in Washington, there's currently no limit on the percentage a landlord can increase rent.

- As long as they follow the procedures in the Act, you know, do it on the lease renewal date with proper notice.

- [Jaelynn] If landlords don't follow those procedures, the Dispute Resolution Program could call for rollbacks, which is what happened in 2023.

In August of 2023, we published a story about complaints from residents in Leisure Manor alleging unlawful rent increases and excessive fees.

Those complaints formally went through the Dispute Resolution Program and, two months later, the AG's Office called on Hurst & Son to refund fees and bring rents back to the amount in the lease.

That's not the only win for Leisure Manor organizers.

Wilson and Hardy also fought for an Aberdeen city ordinance to give four months notice for any rent increase bigger than 3%.

On July 12th, 2023, it passed unanimously.

- None, all in favor say aye.

- [Members] Aye.

- Any opposed?

Motion carries.

- As for the AG O's resolution with Hurst & Son, residents of Leisure Manner said that some rents were reduced, but they have yet to see any refunds.

How do you all feel about the process of going through the Attorney General's Office?

So thinking about some of those findings that came out last year, does that feel like a success to you?

Does that feel like enough?

What's your takeaway?

- It's not enough, but I feel like we're making progress.

- Yeah, I think we're taking baby steps, but they're in the right direction.

And they need more people, they definitely need more people.

- [Jaelynn] The AG's Office says it is flooded with complaints and responding takes time due to limited funding from the legislature.

The advocacy work we've been talking about is also part of what's causing the backlog, as organizers urge tenants to file their own complaints against Hurst & Son.

Last year, complaints for Hurst & Son parks make up about 18% of the total complaints.

- It's certainly a significant percentage of the program's work has been around complaints from Hurst park-owned tenants.

- Colgan said the Office reached out directly to Hurst & Son, and they shifted to being more cooperative after that.

- We've had kind of a informal dialogue with them where we've asked them to sort of proactively make some changes, but we haven't used any of the specific statutory enforcement mechanisms that are available to us, because, under the statute, we can't use those until the dispute resolution process fails.

And it hasn't, it's ongoing.

- It's just it's taking time, and a lot of the people in this park don't have a lot of time.

They're running out of money.

They're using all their savings.

They're using their 401k.

They don't have anything left, you know?

We want everyone to be enjoying their final days.

And there's a lot of people here that are in their 90s and- - [Caroline] Yeah, we have a lady that just turned 101.

- Oh my gosh, I can't even imagine.

- But she needs to go back to work so she can afford her house.

You know, I mean, this is what we're looking at.

- We've had to cut it back on birthday presents and stuff for our grandkids, because we have to take care of other things first, and it's hard adjusting your lifestyle when you thought you had it all planned out, and it's not fair.

It's not fair at all.

- [Jaelynn] Spokane County contains more Hurst & Son properties than any other county in Washington, with 13 parks, that includes Badger Lake Estates, where Michael Rohlf owns a single-wide lakeside trailer.

Rohlf took us on a golf cart tour of the park, and he said, when Hurst & Son took over, they cut down trees, deferred park maintenance, and, at times, left unfinished sewage lines open to the air.

- That's a pipe sitting on the ground that they covered in dirt, right?

That's intended to be the sewer for something to put here.

- [Jaelynn] Rohlf said he has also faced unlawful rent hikes and threats of eviction.

He believes it's all part of the business model for park owners.

- So they have a tenant who is continuing to pay a higher rate, a higher rate, a higher rate, doing everything they can to stay in their home because that's their home.

Moving a manufactured home is very difficult, so you become captive to the park owner.

- [Jaelynn] Rohlf filed multiple complaints with the AG'S Dispute Resolution Program alleging improper notice of rent increases, unreasonable fines, and other abuses.

He said the AG'S Office later negotiated a resolution in which Hurst & Son agreed that it owed him about $5,200.

- In my case, they had agreed that they had improperly increased my rent.

They agreed that the fees were egregious that they were trying to charge me.

Now they weren't agreeing that that was illegal or that they had done it against the MHLTA even, they were simply agreeing to move forward with what the Attorney General's Office was requesting that they do.

- [Jaelynn] But now?

- Once again, for the fourth time, they are trying to increase my rent whilst being under investigation by the Attorney General's Office for this very action.

- Rohlf says he's fortunate that he's relatively financially stable and could afford to push back.

- If I didn't have the resources that I have, this process would've been near impossible.

- In nearby, Hideaway Mobile Home Park, our team spoke with a single mother preparing to leave the community she had called home for 22 years.

She asked to speak anonymously to avoid future housing complications, which we granted.

- I kept getting charged for notices and there was notices that weren't explained.

And so I would fight this one, and then, three months later, I went back to fighting.

And in my time and the effort I had to fight every notice, took a mental toll, I was exhausted.

- [Jaelynn] She got several months behind on rent payments last year.

Eventually, she tried to sell her mobile home and used the money to pay off about $4,000 in back rent.

Instead, she discovered Hurst & Son had already taken possession of her home.

- The buyer called me and went, "It's no longer in your name."

And I went, "What?"

- [Jaelynn] The woman alleged that Hurst & Son declared her home abandoned, paid less than $60 in overdue taxes, and took over the title, all despite ongoing discussions with her about selling and moving out.

- They had done all the legal steps and bought it for $60.

I ended up staying at my mother's, kids staying inside with her, I'm in my vehicle, sleeping in my vehicle.

- The woman gave us a grocery sack of half-shredded housing and legal documents to back up her story.

She had planned to toss them before leaving for the Washington coast in search of a new start for her family.

- When a lot of this went down, I realized I am not where I need to be.

So now I'm headed where I will be 35 minutes from the ocean.

So yeah, it went to heck, but now I'm going to go somewhere where I'm going to thrive.

- [Jaelynn] One way that advocates are trying to match the kind of power that the ownership groups have is to connect tenants at parks across the state with each other rather than just working with their neighbors inside their parks.

The hope is the coordinated efforts may lead to better leverage.

- They destroy communities, destroy people's lives, steal your homes.

And stand up for your rights, or you won't have any.

- [Jaelynn] In September, tenants from numerous parks across the state gathered in Bremerton to help motivate tenants into action.

- Put it in writing, send in your complaint forms to the attorney general.

It's right there.

You cannot be retaliated against for standing up for your rights and putting a complaint in.

And I know it's frightening, but it's more frightening to do nothing.

(attendees clapping) - The only way we're gonna have lasting change is when tenants are organized as a counterforce.

We already know they're well organized, they're well funded.

That's why we have to get together.

- [Jaelynn] Ishbel Dickens was one of the advocates at the rally.

- So I just would encourage you to join AMHO to form homeowners associations within your own communities.

And I want to really encourage all of you to contact your legislators to get them to support rent stabilization.

That's the only way we're going to get some kind of equity in the situation.

(gentle music) - [Jaelynn] For the past two legislative sessions, groups of tenants and advocates have pushed Washington state lawmakers to pass a rent stabilization bill that would limit how much landlords could increase lot rents within a year.

- [Ishbel] They're not asking for rent stabilization because they don't wanna pay rent.

They're asking for rent stabilization 'cause they can't pay any more rent.

You can't get blood out of a turnip or whatever the saying is.

- [Jaelynn] Landlords and property management groups have strongly opposed those bills.

One of which passed the State House in 2024, but didn't make it to the governor's desk.

- We didn't get it over at the finish line in the Senate.

But we are very hopeful that with the election coming up and the new session starting in January of 2025, that rent stabilization will be a reality by the end of the next legislative session.

- [Jaelynn] Dickens notes that, across the country, there are many other large landlords, like Hurst & Son, that have also acquired huge numbers of mobile home parks and engage in many of the same management practices.

- I believe the big companies just do see them as cash cows.

You know, once you purchase a manufactured housing community, you don't have to do that much, you just have to collect rent.

And you don't have to reinvest that much back into the community, you can allow it to sit there.

You can allow the infrastructure to fail so that, ultimately, you can sell the land for another purpose.

(gentle music) - [Rohlf] If I found myself in a room with the Romacks right now, what would I say to them?

First, I would ask them, "Why?

Why is it so important to you to engage in such a kind of a dark business model?"

- [Elva] Let us live our lives.

We're not causing problems.

We're not having wild parties.

- You're feeding off of and preying upon people who can't afford that much for your enrichment.

- We're just trying to be people, you know?

We're trying to be human and have our way of life respected.

- It's so peaceful.

It's my little piece of heaven back here.

(Art speaking in Spanish) Which means we're strength in numbers with many of us.

- We're stronger together.

And the more of us there are, the better we'll do.

- Alone, you can't go very far, but if you all stand together, you'll have a better chance.

- We have strength in numbers.

It's exciting to me, 'cause it's a movement.

It's something that I wanna help defend.

(gentle music) (gentle upbeat guitar music) Para bailar La Bamba Para bailar La Bamba Se necesita una poca de gracia Una poca de gracia Pa' mi, pa' ti, arriba, y arriba Y arriba, y arriba Por ti sere, por ti sere, por ti sere Bailar La Bamba Bailar La Bamba Bailar La Bamba Bailar La Bamba (gentle upbeat guitar music ends) It still has the sound.

(laughs) (no audio)