photo credit: Noah Abrams/KRCB
Youngstown tenant leader Jodi Johnson delivers a
speech at a rally outside the mobile home park
on Tuesday, September 12, 2023.

In the phrase ‘mobile home park,’ the word ‘mobile’ usually applies to the homes.

But earlier this month at Youngstown, a senior mobile home park in north Petaluma, it was the residents - 75-plus of them, many whom are 75-plus - who mobilized themselves.

It was a response to a spate of moves by the park’s owners, Los Altos-based Three Pillars Communities. That's an investor-focused real estate company operating over 60 mobile home parks across 14 states, according to the company's website.

At Youngstown in Petaluma, a proposed 40% rent increase was struck down by an arbitrator last year. Since, Three Pillars representatives have suggested plans to close the park, converting it to all ages, and increasing rents by over $900 a month.

At each step of the way they’ve faced fierce and organized opposition - led by resident Jodi Johnson.

“Why are we continuing to fight?” Johnson asked a recent gathered crowd. “We do it for each and every one of the owner-residents that deserve to live their lives owning their mobile home free of intimidation. Free of retaliation. Free of unfair housing. Free of hypocrisy.”

Johnson said uncertainty has exacted a toll on Youngstown’s aging residents.

“We have seen though people on suicide watch, people in cardiac arrest over it all,” Johnson said. “We had a death.”

While their struggle to oppose rent increases has weighed heavily on residents, it’s also helped unite them, said Youngstown resident Jennifer Boyle.

“Through this whole process, I've gotten to know my neighbors and it's opened the door to a lot of great people,” Boyle said.

Local mobile home park owners have cited Petaluma’s rent stabilization rules and renter protections as illegal government takings; an infringement on their right to a fair return on investment.

The city sees it differently. Just after Youngstown residents lined the sidewalk on North McDowell Boulevard in protest, Petaluma’s Planning Commission moved to adopt an overlay district to keep senior mobile home parks from being converted to all ages.

Planning Commissioner Darren Racusen discussed the move.

“I think that we are well within the public good here to protect folks' investment, allow our seniors to age in place,” Racusen said. “So we're not passing anything that unnecessarily infringes on property owner rights, but instead is for the public welfare and the welfare of vulnerable members of our community.”

A representative for Youngstown ownership said in a statement emailed to KRCB News, “we may have to shut this community down because our costs are rising so much faster than the rent we bring in. We're trying to keep the park open, including asking the city to grant us a rent increase, but…closure may be our only option.”