HomeMy WebLinkAbout2022-09-07Housing —-Affordable-Workforce. Minutes, September 7, 2022
Attendees: Jim Skaley, Ray Burger, Leonardo Vargas-Mendez, Miles McCarty, Martha
Robertson, Mike Murphy. Guests: Chip Ray, Chuck Geisler, Eliot Benman, Absent Diane
Tessaglia-Hymes
Motion by Leonardo to approve minutes of 8/10 meeting—approved.
Discussion of Mobile Home Parks
Chip Ray, owner and operator of Hillside Acres in Varna and formerly chair of a statewide
association of owners of Manufactured and Mobile Home Parks, provided the committee insight
into the operations of a Park.
Distinction between manufactured housing and mobile homes. All homes manufactured after
1976 are now labeled manufactured housing and are subject to federal/state guidelines for
construction, improving energy conservation.
Owners of “mobile” homes can no longer afford the cost of transporting a mobile home. Homes
are almost never replaced because of the cost.
NYS standards require concrete pad with utilities, insulated skirting, and other features, costing
$25-30K for each pad.
Manufactured units for single-wide cost $90-$100k plus the cost of the pad. Double-wide costs
range $130-$140k plus pad costs.
Currently there is up to a year wait in ordering a new home with no guarantee of price.
Hillside rents are $421-521/month. Property taxes, water, and sewer are included in the pad
rent. Electricity is not included.
With 198 units currently on 205 spaces, Hillside has an average density of 1.8/household, with
many older tenants. Chip estimated that only 1.5% are past due on their rent.
In August 2019, Snug Planet came in to offer energy improvements using a federal grant to
upgrade older units with energy conservation. Benefits varied by income. Despite distributing
door hangers to each residence and holding a meeting at the VCA to answer questions, they
had poor participation from tenants. Their brochure did list the eligible income levels, but did not
list the potential dollar savings for residents. Chip expressed great frustration that there wasn’t a
better response to this offer.
NYS Housing and Community Renewal monitors parks. If there is a proposed sale that would
be a change of use, NYS law requires that tenants are given the chance to purchase the park.
Pathstone, out of Rochester, has a program to assist residents to form cooperatives and
purchase their park. It’s a time-consuming process but it’s been successful in a number of
places around the country.
Outside investor firms are buying parks. Chip Ray has had frequent offers to sell.
Cook Brother owns 30 or more parks around NYS, some in Dryden. Many investors find parks
to be a good investment. Some of these investors provide a good value for residents, such as
UHF and Sun Communities.
NYS has rent-control on parks with no more than 3%/year increase allowed. Up to 6% can be
allowed, but the owner has to justify the increase above 3%, if any resident complains to the
state.
In answer to a question about “modular” vs. “manufactured” or “mobile” homes, Chip said
modular homes tend to be more expensive than mobile homes. Modulars are pre-built in a
factory, then have to be transported, assembled, and have all the utilities connected; there is a
lot of on-site work that has to be done. In contrast a “mobile” home is delivered intact, and it’s
much easier to connect to utilities once it’s on the pad. Some parks on Long Island build parks
with modular construction. Chip was asked if he would consider that, but he felt the risk is too
great.
Next meeting will be October 5.
The committee discussed bringing in Carl Westerling for a future conversation.
Ray mentioned that Hanshaw Village has asked the Town about extending sewer lines to their
park. They need to fix their system within one year. Ray has started meeting with their
engineers.
Eliot suggested that we might want to try to identify MHP owners who are most inclined to sell. If
we can be proactive, we might be able to head off an investor purchase, perhaps with
something like INHS did in Trumansburg.
There was discussion of the County’s Community Recovery Fund, the guidelines for which have
just been released.
Chuck mentioned that a couple the numbers in his report on MHPs need to be corrected. He’ll
make the changes and resend the report. Martha thanked Chuck for his very useful and
comprehensive report, and other committee members agreed.