And then there were more . . .

In the ongoing saga of the raccoon invasion in the mobile home park where mostly seniors live, some interesting facts have come to light, and more questions have arisen. First, the people in the park have wondered who is responsible for the trapping/removal of the raccoons. Somehow they believe that the park management should be responsible. But in fact, neither the mobile home owners nor the park management invited the raccoons in. They come with the area we live in.  And if a home suffers damage, will the insurance pay for the damage?  Likely not, because the mobile homes have inadequate skirting (i.e., it is flimsy).  And if an owner chooses to try to shore up the holes where the skirting has been moved out by the raccoons, it is at best going to be a tacky looking job as is the case with my senior disabled neighbor.  And this is a low-rent mobile home park, so there really aren't any specific rules regarding what a mobile home owner does.  And what is more, the park owners could care less what happens to the park as long as they get their monthly rent.  As for the raccoons, you have trees, and you will likely have raccoons.

To make matters worse in here, there are cats living outside everywhere.  When seniors pass on, frequently their neighbors or relatives simply release the cats outside, where they continue to stay since this is the area where they lived. Also, the seniors, who are often alone and lonely, feed the cats outside since they like the feeling of company and watching the cats come daily to sleep on their little stairs or porches or even under their houses. Some owners have actually taken out some of their skirting panels to make it possible for the cats to go under the houses to sleep.  And no one seems concerned abut the health issues of all of this.  Of course the cat food attracts the raccoons, skunks, possums, and even rats and mice and squirrels as well as the cats.  And we have learned that the managers actually put food out daily for the raccoons because they think the raccoons are cute.

Spring through summer is breeding time, so this mom sought refuge most likely under my neighbor's mobile home, where she then gave birth in the warmth of the insulation under their home. The insulation is broken out in several areas - not just tiny holes either, and there is insulation all over the ground.  For those who have never lived in a mobile home, when the insulation and moisture barrier is broken into, it leaves nice entry points for additional creatures such as those I have mentioned above.  But even worse is that the droppings of the creatures are going to be everywhere, and eventually this is a definite health problem. Bugs will start coming to eat the droppings, and then there are also the bugs to contend with.  And of course we haven't mentioned why there is a moisture barrier to begin with.  Yes, you might have guessed, it is to keep moisture out from under the home.  With the moisture barrier broken out, moisture gets into the pressboard most mobile home floors are made of and then you have soft areas in the flooring where you can ultimately fall through.  And even if THAT doesn't happen, you are going to start getting mold from the moisture, and everyone knows, or I hope they know, the damage and danger to our health that mold brings.

Yes, the raccoons are cute to look at from a distance, but they do pose health issues that can be quite serious. Raccoon feces can carry several diseases that are potentially serious.  Rabies and distemper are sometimes an issue, but they are rare.  Distemper will make the raccoons forage more during the day and act unusually aggressive.  Distemper can spread from the infected animal to any domestic pets that come into contact with the raccoon feces.

A more dangerous disease that raccoon feces can contain is a parasite called Baylisascaris procyonis.  This is a type of roundworm that can also infect humans.  If this parasite is transferred to humans, it can be extremely dangerous.  In children, the elderly, and people with compromised immune systems, infection with this roundworm can even be fatal.  Infections occur when someone comes into contact with raccoon droppings.  Million of this parasite’s eggs are often present in the droppings.  Even though roundworm parasites need to be inside the host to survive, the eggs can remain alive and dangerous for years in the soil.  This is how people can come into contact with the parasite without even knowing that they have.

If you have been exposed to this parasite or its eggs, your symptoms could include becoming nauseous, tired, and you may notice a lack of attention or coordination.  Other more serious symptoms are the loss of muscle control, blindness, and coma.  It can also cause a person’s liver to become enlarged.  If you have come into contact with raccoon feces, which are very similar in appearance to those of a dog, and you have any of these symptoms, contact a doctor as soon as possible.  With the proper treatment, the ringworms can be eliminated before they travel throughout the body.

 If you are trying to clean up a mess left by raccoons, you need to have eye and breathing apparatus and you need to wear very thick or even plastic coated gloves and pants, etc. to protect yourself.
 This is the story of how a single raccoon can turn your neighborhood (like it has ours) into a true raccoon invasion.  I have not heard of this being the case with possums or skunks, but I am sure it could be a similar situation. 

If you are considering buying a mobile home, as much as most of us love beautiful trees and woods-like environments around us, make this a consideration in your decision. Have an inspection of the property to discover if the moisture barrier is sound before you buy, and if it has the old panel type skirting, you can either have the panel skirting replaced with the new type skirting or you can get some of the plastic X-shaped trellis material and have it screwed on in place all around the bottom. If there is evidence that the moisture barrier is broken out, you need to have that repaired and have the house inspected for health issues before buying it.  It costs more than $1,000 to get the moisture barrier replaced, and more than $1,500 to get the new type of skirting, so you can be looking at a huge investment before even moving in.  And of course there is the inspection that you need to get done.  If you are a senior, these issues are especially important since our immune systems are not what they were when we were even 30 years old. 

Just Another Day in the Life of a Senior . . .

Early in the morning, I heard frantic knocking on my door. Next door neighbors had a raccoon invasion during the night for their mobile home.  The raccoon had actually torn the skirting off the mobile home, and they wanted me to come and check it out. The man had a hoe and was banging on the skirting of his mobile home, causing further damage. He is disabled and cannot always understand everything that needs to happen. So his idea was just to kill it. He already had a raccoon get into the roof of his mobile home and ended up paying to get that fixed, so it is understandable that he just wanted to do whatever it took to rid himself of this problem. But I had to carefully remind him that it is against the law to kill wildlife, even something like a destructive raccoon.

It has been very cold here at night and even during the day. I had this feeling that it was a raccoon looking for a warm place to nest or possibly a pregnant raccoon looking for a warm place to have her kits.

Since my neighbor is unable to get down on the ground and look under the mobile home (and I am not a lot better off), I went over with digital camera and flashlight to survey the damage and try to figure out what to do next.   When I stuck my head and part of my body under the mobile home after making sure the raccoon was nowhere close, I was able to get photos of what was going on underneath. The raccoon had apparently torn a rather large hole in the moisture barrier under the home and actually managed to get all the way to the front of the home. There was insulation lying all around the ground underneath.  The woman of the house had noted that she had heard its noises up near the front end of the house.  So apparently it had burrowed its way to the front

My first thought was to borrow one of the neighbor's humane traps and try to catch it and then release it into the wild.  And we did set the trap the first night.  But then talking to other neighbors about how vicious those raccoons could be, I had second thoughts about that.  I am a senior myself and not that strong.  After thinking more about it, I called Animal Control, and then I was shocked to learn that they will no longer come and remove a wild animal on your property, and it is illegal for private people to remove them either.  You can go to court and the fines are very large.  So there was really one option, and that was to call a private removal place.  It isn't cheap. $130 for two traps, and if they catch more than one, it is extra. My neighbors and I are splitting the cost; I too have something at stake with a tortoise that goes out into the yard and other small pets at risk.

This is just one of the things seniors have to contend with. Are the raccoons the responsibility of the park or are they the responsibility of the owners?  I've spent a good amount of my time trying to find answers through the various mobile home owners' associations, legal organizations that help seniors and in the end result, it looks as though it is up to us to fight our own battles mostly.

Whatever happens, it was important to me that the raccoons be treated humanely. I love all creatures, and they are just trying to ensure their own survival. It isn't like they are just looking to wreck havoc.  Like us, they need shelter and food and warmth when it is cold.  So as long as they can be relocated where they will not be doing harm, but be able to survive, I guess that will be enough.  Now, how are we seniors to survive?

Mobile Home Living at Its Best and Worst

A lot of seniors are living in mobile home parks, and for many of us, it is an excellent housing alternative. The cost of a mobile home is generally cheaper than most single family homes today, at least if you want to live in a safe and decent neighborhood. There is not so much maintenance required on the part of the owner, property taxes are lower, parks are generally safer for a senior in that your neighbors will notice more quickly if you don't show signs of being around for days, and senior parks are generally a good sense of community for most seniors. The photo to the left is a sculpture in Angels Gate Cultural Center and I took it.  I like this photo because it feels like someone imploring the Gods to protect him


At their worst, however, mobile home parks can become a nightmare for seniors living on a fixed income, or those who have sunk a lot of their savings into getting a home in a park.  You can have all sorts of problems with management or owners of parks, or even natural disasters or other disasters  that essentially leave you homeless and with all of your precious life belongings and even pets gone.  Some examples of this are the mobile home parks in Louisiana that were hit by Hurricane Katrina, and the Oakridge Mobile Home Park near Sylmar, CA.

As I read with an inward cringe at some of the mobile home horror stories in Southern California, I wonder if there are actually many that are truly decent while remaining affordable for the lower income folks.  Apparently, there are more with problems than there are good mobile home parks in Southern California, and this may well be a problem in other states as well.

I am going to try to present as well as I am able with the research I am able to find, some assistance to you if you are looking to buy a mobile home in Southern California. Hopefully this can help avoid some serious problems for you in the future.

Let's look at the worst of the worst of mobile home parks.  These are all owned by one allegedly mobile home park ownership groups, Kaplan-Tatum.  They own some approximately 20 mobile home parks in Southern California, and they have beeen listed on every bad boy mobile home owner site and there are numerous articles about some of the illegal things they have done.  Here is a very good resource to read about them and see some photos of the real thing from some of the actual parks owned. http://badlease.blogspot.com/2009/10/tatum-kaplan-gangexposed.html. And actually, they are written up if you research the name on www.google.com for all the lawsuits, etc. they have had, so I am not telling you anything that is not already all over the place.

Probably the worst park in Southern California I read about is Swan Lake Mobile Home Park in Mira Loma.  It is overrun with gangs, crime and destruction, to say nothing of a bunch of other nasty things like huge raccoons running rampant throughout the park. And to add to the nightmare for the mobile home owners, people are paying huge space rent (up close to $1,000).

We could say it is just the owners at fault, but how did a park come to be like this without anyone doing anything? The thing is, I have seen it here in my own park over the many years. Once again, this is not intended to defame anyone; I am sharing my own experience in hopes of helping you to be careful when making a decision to move into a mobile home.

When I bought my first mobile home in the park, I knew basically nothing about mobile home ownership, like most seniors buying their first mobile home.  I did not know my rights and was just so happy to be in a little community in a decent neighborhood, but I soon realized that all was not what it appeared to be. We were told that we had to use a certain group to do any maintenance that needed to be done, so of course we used that group.  But it became quickly apparent that those people were totally dishonest and lazy to boot. They would do a job halfway and then expect to be paid the entire amount. I had numerous first-hand experiences with this and others who used them reported the same problems. I knew nothing about leveling a mobile home, so that first year, I had to keep calling the people to level my home, each time costing me $80!  One day I came home from work to find my door was standing wide open and my pets had gotten out because the mobile home was not level and it had JUST been leveled.  This time, however, I got really mad (fear will sometimes do that), and I went to a neighbor's house and asked him what was needed to level a mobile home.  He told me, and loaned me the tool to take care of it.  That very afternoon, I crawled under the home myself and leveled it, and it was actually so loose on all the pylons, I am quite surprised that the home didn't fall off of them. I tightened every single one as tight as I could. I never had another problem. In fact, I leveled several of my neighbor's homes, and they too never had another problem.

Despite that proactive action though, there was still so much I needed to learn.  I was a consultant at the time and so much of my business began to take me further and further away from home until I was getting so tired on the road, I realized I had to stop driving.  I found a place to rent near my clients and even though it wasn't my own home like the mobile home had been, it was essential for me.  So I put my home up for sale and listed it in an open listing with a mobile home sales person that the management told me we had to use to sell our homes.  Right then and there I should have questioned that one, but again, I had a lot yet to learn, and this would be a very hard lesson learned.  So even though I had it listed, I found a buyer myself who was just a year short of being senior, and who had good references. I trustingly sent her over to talk to the management to get approval to buy the home.  Soon I got a call from management that I could not sell to her as she was not a senior.  What I didn't know then was that there was nothing at all saying the park was a senior park and I had never signed anything to that affect.  I had noticed that there were people living in the park who weren't seniors, but again, management had a quick answer for that - the 80/20% rule, and there were already 20% people who were not seniors.  And then management added (to make sure I would not ask any more questions I guess), and of course the person could not get financing since the mobile home was only 10' wide, and the financing would only cover 12' wide. Of course the mobile home sales company that I had bought from did private financing so they were able to sell to me.

Now this manager had told me and some other folks in the park that the manager got $1,000 every time a mobile home was sold through that mobile home sales company. In fact, the manager had been quite proud of this fact.  But again, did I know that this just might be a conflict of interest?

To make a long story not quite so long, the gist of all this is that I lost my buyer and couldn't find another one, and meanwhile the mobile home sales person had done absolutely nothing to find a buyer for me, and they had actually other homes for sale in the park as well (this will be important to remember since mine was the smallest and oldest of the ones that were available at the time).  Eventually it became too much to take care of and I had to let it go.  And funny thing, I learned later after I moved back in once again, that the home sold immediately after I turned it back to the bank (which later went under and had been investigated for a lot of hanky panky).  And the buyer?  Hmmm, just a little more hanky and probably a lot of panky too.  Basically, I had to start my life over from scratch and that was not at all easy, especially as a senior, and this is something you want to avoid at any cost for you or your loved ones.

So mobile homes ARE a good deal if you can get into a really good park where the owners AND managers have a good reputation.  But whatever you do, be sure you learn 1) what the natural dangers are in the area, i.e. is this on the San Andreas Fault, or in a highly wooded area, or in an area where there has ever been flooding, etc.  2)  Who are the owners of the park and check out their reputation. 3) make sure that the park isn't going to be sold or in process of being sold. 4) Join the mobile home owners organizations listed in my resource list under Housing. 5) Be sure you read very carefully the Mobile Home Residency Laws which change almost yearly. 6) Be sure you understand the kinds of things you need to check in a mobile home you are buying.  Look carefully at the ceiling and make sure there are no signs of leaks. Turn on the A/C if there is one, and also make sure the wall furnace or other heating system is working properly.  Make sure you check the water pressure (which hopefully is turned on).

Talk to some of the neighbors to ask them how long they have lived there and if there have been any problems. You can sometimes read about such problems on www.google.com if you search on problems for that park - for example, Swan Lake Mobile Home Park is written about all over the place, but then it would be pretty obvious if you just drove by there and saw what was going on.  Check the number of vacancies. A high vacancy rate does not sit well.  And check to find out how often the rent has been increased and how much too.  The management is going to question you; you have the right and it is your responsibility to question management too. ALL management is going to give you their best foot forward when you are interviewing them, but you might need to check up on their background too and see if there have been any problems with them.

You might think that you can move in if a park is going to be sold because you can get the home cheap.   But what you don't know is that some owners might have paid $200,000 for their mobile home, only to be offered $80,000 during the forced sales.  Oh yes, it has happened, and if you read enough mobile home owners organization web sites, sooner or later you will realize that  this is a very real thing, even though it also is not ethical for sure, to say the least.

And when you are in the park, you cannot just sit back and forget to pay attention. You need to be involved with any owner's association that might be within the park, and also to stay informed on what is happening.  And if things aren't right, as I have done and am continuing to do, you need to take a stand and make sure you are getting your rights and that anything that is promised or noted in the rules about maintenance, etc. is being done. 

I am quoting the words below from a newsletter I subscribe to: Heron Dance, written by an artist whose watercolors I enjoy very much. While it is talking about art, I truly believe this is important for all of us in life. It is not easy to stand up and fight for our rights, especially when it involves our dwelling places and where we might be the only ones willing to take a stand. 

"The final statement should be that in the realm of art the most important characteristic is courage. Courage to pursue what some voice inside of you, against the tidal wave of everything that's happening in the society, says go this way. Courage to pursue what you know you really have to pursue. That's what counts.

- Richard Foreman, filmmaker

 

"Courage counts. Courage gives life to art; courage inspires those who  open themselves up to it.

"Part of the role of artists is to show us courage, give us courage." 

I wish that life could be simple for all of us seniors and that we could just live our lives enjoying all those things people told us we would get to enjoy when we got older. But the truth is that some of us at least do have to stand and fight, not just for ourselves but for others as well. We might not be comfortable doing it and we might have to stand alone, and that is always scary. But it is a lot less scary somehow than it was when I was 20 years old and didn't know half the things I know now. People who have lived side by side with us for years will suddenly turn against us with those we might do battle with.  The truth is that they are afraid, and they also somehow believe if they do nothing, or they somehow support the management, everything will stay the same and that everything will be alright. But that is not the case, and ultimately, way too late they realize the truth. Look at all the mobile home parks standing abandoned or in such terrible states that they SHOULD be abandoned.

I became a senior advocate because I had to stand up and fight for my rights, and I also had to help those who are even less able to stand up for themselves because of disabilities or illnesses. And suddenly this role has wrapped itself around me. What once was a story of victimization has blossomed into what I perceive to be a positive thing. What better thing to do something to help other seniors in every way I can. I hope this will be helpful for you and your loved ones. Feel free to write me any time if I can answer any questions for you and I am always willing to research until I DO find an answer.