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The residents of Saddle Butte Mobile Manor must have felt like dancing in the streets Monday, or at least, they must have slept better.
L&H Lumber Co., the owners of the Winchester mobile home park, announced they had withdrawn plans to dismantle the park in order to replace the rental spaces with site-built homes.
Anyone who knows someone who lives at Saddle Butte now or who lived there in the past likely breathed a big sigh of relief along with those residents. Because if you know someone who resides there, you probably know many of them are elderly or low-income. Few of them can afford to live elsewhere, and a move would be hard on them. Chances are their mobile homes are old enough that they’re of little value or they can’t be moved.
Even those with newer mobile homes would have been saddled with moving costs they didn’t anticipate — likely stacked on top of monthly payments on the home — and bleak prospects for a new location.
Overall, the proposed development would have displaced the families living in roughly half of the 300 mobile homes in the park. It’s unlikely there would have been enough available housing in Douglas County to accommodate all of them, but it’s likely their newfound homelessness would have strained local social service agencies. No moving expenses were guaranteed to mobile home park residents under existing laws, although the Oregon Legislature has since passed a bill to do just that.
Certainly, owner Sid Leiken had the right to develop his property into more attractive, single-family homes on larger lots, but the cost of doing so would have been high in human emotion and the well-being of some 150 county families. It would have torn apart the very community that Leiken brought together in originally establishing the park — one where residents live close to one another and look out for each other. A park where they beautify their yards, even though they’re only renting the space.
Leiken not only has dropped the plans that residents feared, he’s looking to give them a more secure future. He’s considering long-term leases, possibly five to 10 years, and plans improvements to the roads. A playground may be in the works too.
That’s welcome news for those who want to stay put. The fear of having nearly lost their homes may cause others to avoid placing a home on a rented piece of land in the future.
Whether this was a business or personal decision for Leiken, the veteran real estate developer has earned a better reputation than he ever had before.
Now, one of his biggest opponents is lauding his compassion and recognizing his cooperativeness in listening to residents’ concerns.
That’s so much better than the upheaval, financial problems and housing shortages the residents would have faced had the park closed.
L&H Lumber Co., the owners of the Winchester mobile home park, announced they had withdrawn plans to dismantle the park in order to replace the rental spaces with site-built homes.
Anyone who knows someone who lives at Saddle Butte now or who lived there in the past likely breathed a big sigh of relief along with those residents. Because if you know someone who resides there, you probably know many of them are elderly or low-income. Few of them can afford to live elsewhere, and a move would be hard on them. Chances are their mobile homes are old enough that they’re of little value or they can’t be moved.
Even those with newer mobile homes would have been saddled with moving costs they didn’t anticipate — likely stacked on top of monthly payments on the home — and bleak prospects for a new location.
Overall, the proposed development would have displaced the families living in roughly half of the 300 mobile homes in the park. It’s unlikely there would have been enough available housing in Douglas County to accommodate all of them, but it’s likely their newfound homelessness would have strained local social service agencies. No moving expenses were guaranteed to mobile home park residents under existing laws, although the Oregon Legislature has since passed a bill to do just that.
Certainly, owner Sid Leiken had the right to develop his property into more attractive, single-family homes on larger lots, but the cost of doing so would have been high in human emotion and the well-being of some 150 county families. It would have torn apart the very community that Leiken brought together in originally establishing the park — one where residents live close to one another and look out for each other. A park where they beautify their yards, even though they’re only renting the space.
Leiken not only has dropped the plans that residents feared, he’s looking to give them a more secure future. He’s considering long-term leases, possibly five to 10 years, and plans improvements to the roads. A playground may be in the works too.
That’s welcome news for those who want to stay put. The fear of having nearly lost their homes may cause others to avoid placing a home on a rented piece of land in the future.
Whether this was a business or personal decision for Leiken, the veteran real estate developer has earned a better reputation than he ever had before.
Now, one of his biggest opponents is lauding his compassion and recognizing his cooperativeness in listening to residents’ concerns.
That’s so much better than the upheaval, financial problems and housing shortages the residents would have faced had the park closed.
