Des Moines Register
08-23-06
Mobile home parks disappearing
Affordable housing is scarce, residents say
By FRANK VINLUAN
REGISTER STAFF WRITER
Linda Quinn moved into "paradise" last year planning a new home. A real estate
deal and an eviction notice forced her to find another one.
Quinn and 100 residents of the Paradise Park mobile home park in Windsor
Heights are scrambling to find new homes before the Aug. 31 deadline to close
the park.
The search is tough. Paradise is the third Des Moines-area mobile home park to
close in the last two years; Andrew Mobile Home Park in Urbandale closed in
May, and Highview Mobile Home Park in Des Moines closed in 2004.
Advocates for the homeless say such affordable housing is disappearing in Iowa
and across the country, leaving those forced from the parks with fewer options.
Paradise residents have fewer choices under the law than tenants in other parts
of the country. A comparison shows many other states offer dislocated tenants
more time and more help than Iowa does.
Quinn, 53, got lucky. She's paying more to rent a nearby apartment but still has a
roof over her head.
"Other people are moving out," she said of her former neighbors. "But I don't
know if they've got a place to go or not."
Paradise was owned for 24 years by Peter Riccelli Sr. of Des Moines. He also
owned the Andrew park, which he sold in February. At 85, Riccelli said he's too
old to run mobile home parks.
The Paradise property was assessed at $674,000 in 2005. In May, Windsor
Heights Land Co. II bought the 40-year-old park for $500,000.
Park tenants say they heard nothing from the new owners until a June 28 letter.
Attorney Jonathan Wilson, who also represents the new owners of the Andrew
property, wrote that the park would close and that residents had until Aug. 31 to
move.
Pete Larkin, a Paradise resident for five years, said people weren't given enough
time. But Wilson noted the company gave what Iowa law requires: at least 60
days notice.
"They got more notice than is required by the law, and whatever date we would
have chosen, we would have had people claiming that that was not enough
time," Wilson said.
If Quinn and Larkin lived in Florida or Vermont, they'd have more time and more
options. Both states require that park owners give tenants six months' notice of
an eviction. At least 12 states give residents the right of first refusal to purchase a
park.
Robert Simmons, outreach coordinator for the Iowa Coalition for Housing and the
Homeless, took no issue with Riccelli's sale of Paradise. But he said Iowa needs
the rules in effect in other states.
"It is his right to go ahead and sell the property," Simmons said. "But what do you
do with all the people that now have the burden of relocating?"
The federal government defines "affordable housing" as housing that requires 30
percent of a person's income. Paradise rents were $250 a month. Rent for a twobedroom apartment in Polk County is $670, leaving apartments a more
expensive alternative for Paradise residents, Simmons said.
Mobile homes are the fastest-growing type of housing in the country, according
to the U.S. Census Bureau. Data show the number of such homes increased
from 315,000 in 1950 to almost 8.8 million in 2000. But the number of parks
hasn't kept pace.
There are fewer mobile home parks these days because mobile homes are
outdated housing, said Gary Taylor, Iowa State University professor of
community and regional planning. In Iowa, factory-built homes made after
1976 are manufactured, not mobile homes.
Manufactured homes have foundations and aren't mobile at all, Taylor said. Iowa
law allows manufactured homes to be placed anywhere a wood-frame house can
be built. That prevents cities from zoning manufactured homes out of a
community, he said.
But over time, the law also contributes to the shrinking number of mobile home
parks. If newer manufactured homes can be placed among wood-frame homes,
fewer people look to put these homes in mobile or manufactured home parks.
"There just isn't the demand for them that there used to be," Taylor said.
Increasingly, older parks are being closed for new development. Highview on
Des Moines' south side closed in 2004 and is now a carwash.
Paradise residents who find a spot in another park can pay to move their homes.
If they don't, they still must pay. The law requires them to foot demolition costs,
which can reach $2,000. The added expense chafes many Paradise residents.
"Being that we're forced out, I think they should take care of it," said Joe Duff, 69.
The city of Windsor Heights briefly discussed tenant assistance. Last year,
another developer sought tax incentives for a town home project at Paradise. But
the law requires relocation help only when the city gives incentives. Windsor
Heights Land Co.'s purchase was private, city administrator Marketa Oliver said.
Wilson, the company's attorney, said he's unaware of definitive plans for the
property. But county property records show Windsor Heights Land Co. shares an
address with Oaks Development, a West Des Moines company whose work
includes condominiums and town homes in central Iowa. Wilson acknowledged a
relationship between the companies.
Duff, a 20-year Paradise resident, smiled wryly at the prospect of town homes.
"If they make town houses in here, then they can give me one," he said.