SONOMA GROVE TENANTS FACE UNCERTAIN FUTURE:MANY FEAR THEY WILL BE FORCED FROM LOW-COST TRAILER PARK BY NEW RULES, RENTHIKES

Sonoma Grove is a funky trailer park that's served as a low-cost haven for

generations of Sonoma State students, artists and the working poor, but a

change in ownership has residents worried its days could be numbered.

The new owner of the 154-space trailer park last month announced that rents

in some cases will be nearly doubling, something the low-income residents say

will be tough to afford and could force some of them into homelessness.

New rules limiting residency to less than nine months, along with

requirements that trailers be in operating condition, also have residents

feeling they are being forced out.

Many of the old trailers have not been moved in decades, or their wheels

fell off long ago. A few have improvised second levels, or sheet metal add-ons

that would need to be dismantled.

''A lot don't have the wherewithal to go someplace else,'' said Mark Kelly,

an apartment maintenance technician who has lived at Sonoma Grove more than 10

years, but is moving because of the changes.

''It was affordable. It just won't be that anymore,'' said Aimee Pitre, a

Sonoma State senior who has lived at the Grove for two years and whose rent is

increasing from $215 a month to $395.

About 40 residents of Sonoma Grove showed up at Rohnert Park City Hall last

week to ask the Mobile Home Park Rent Appeals Board to limit the rent

increases.

But the city attorney's office has advised that Sonoma Grove is not subject

to rent control.

Under state law, trailers and motorhomes are exempt from rent controls,

unlike mobile homes, which are considered more permanent, said Assistant City

Attorney Gabrielle Whelan.

Linda Rom, who subsists on a limited Social Security disability income,

said she and her companion have been looking to move their 38-foot-long

trailer from Sonoma Grove ever since the new rent amounts and regulations were

disseminated. Their rent is going from $345 a month to $495 in February.

''We've been trying to find another space for over a month,'' she said. But

other trailer parks are trashier, according to Rom, or not as hospitable to

their cat.

Numerous cats run free in a kind of feline nirvana in Sonoma Grove, but new

regulations require they either be kept inside or leashed, something else that

has rankled the cat-loving residents.

The rent at Sonoma Grove always has been cheap, since 1972, when it was

established as a student housing project, but resembled a hippie community

with live-in buses, tents and vintage camping trailers.

''Sonoma Grove is a special place in Rohnert Park and it has a connection

with the early history of Sonoma State University,'' Mayor Jake Mackenzie said

Tuesday. ''Clearly, it represents the cheapest housing in Rohnert Park and

maybe in Sonoma County.''

Residents say they love how people look out for each other and the sense of

community when people gather informally, or for holiday parties in the redwood

meeting hall.

Students still live in Sonoma Grove, a requirement for residency there when

Rohnert Park first approved the alternative housing plan years ago. But many

residents seem not to have been to school in years, or subsist on disability

pensions.

Even with the new rent increases, the amount still falls below the $653

monthly rental guideline for a very-low-income person in Sonoma County.

Tenants acknowledged that the previous longtime owner had not raised rents

since 2001, so the recently announced hike was ''like a punch in the gut,''

said Doreen Hanks, who has lived at Sonoma Grove for 15 years.

The new owner of the park, Theresa Thurman of Lakeport, did not return

telephone messages left Monday and Tuesday.

Some residents fear she ultimately wants to develop the property, perhaps

for apartments or condominiums like those that have popped up around the Grove

over the past decades.

But city officials said that would require a general plan amendment,

something the City Council may not be willing to grant.

''As an individual council member I'm not interested in losing Sonoma Grove

as affordable housing in the community,'' Mackenzie said.

You can reach Staff Writer Clark Mason at 521-5214 or

cmason@pressdemocrat.com