Windsor mobile home park resident asks Windsor leaders for lower assessment increases

A resident of the Windsor Mobile Country Club asked during a hearing on Windsor’s draft housing element last week, that the town reduce the annual rent increases property owners there are allowed to assess from 6% to 3%.

There was a consensus by Town council members, but no vote, that the request be looked at by town staff. Council member Rosa Reynoza said later that the council would ask Town Attorney Jose Sanchez to research it.

The housing element, which is a guide for residential development that addresses housing needs in Windsor, is required by the state to be updated every eight years and has been available to the public for review since Aug. 24.

Patti Restaino**, who lives in the mobile home park, told the council Wednesday night that 90% of the 500 people who live there spend 50% or more of their income on rent.

She pointed out that the town’s rent ordinance also allows landlords to calculate rent increases in line with 100% of the local Cost of Living Price Index, or CPI. Restaino asked that increases be reduced to 50% of the CPI instead.

“Seniors are on a fixed income,” she said. “It may go up, but so does Medicare and prescriptions and things.”

The senior section of the housing element lists as housing options “homes costing more than $500,000 and other places to rent for $5,000 a month, but not something like our mobile home park,” she said.

“Our incomes are going up but not as dramatically as other things in the world,” she said. “We would love to have conversations with anybody from the town and the council.”

After the meeting, Vice Mayor Esther Lemus said, “Obviously this is a population that is vulnerable to these increases.”

Renoza said she would be open to meeting with park residents, “if it’s possible (to lower the rates) because it is a very big concern for our seniors. And if it is possible I’d like to bring it back as an agenda item.”

The final housing element is due to the state by the end of January, according to a town report. The housing element is one of the eight required elements of the town's General Plan.

**Editor’s Note: This article has been updated to include the correct spelling of Patti Restaino’s name.

You can reach Staff Writer Kathleen Coates at kathleen.coates@pressdemocrat.com or 707-521-5209.