A comment made frequently by lenders at a recent national banker's conference was, "It is a good time to be a borrower." Correction, it is a great time to be a borrower! Treasury yields have been hovering at or near all time lows, loan spreads are at favorable levels, and lender underwriting guidelines have moderated -- some believe too quickly -- as a result of an expanding supply of active lenders in the market.

Question: We have a parking problem in our RV park. Some of the long-term residents often have guests who park in places that they shouldn't. In addition, some tenants own more than one vehicle, which adds to the parking congestion. Can we tow unlawfully parked vehicles? What else can we do to cut down on parking problems?

The last two weeks in the Oregon Legislature have been hectic.  Yesterday was the deadline for bills in their originating chamber to move out of that chamber.  In other words, House bills need to be out of House Committees and Senate bills had to be out of the Senate.  This results in a large number of legislative proposals not moving forward which almost always is a good thing.  The ten days leading up to this deadline is intense with lots of last minute proposals struggling to move out of committee.

HB 3016 Coalition Bill - Sails Out of Oregon House

There are three legislative proposals MHCO has been closely monitoring and lobbying.  The first is the coalition bill with the language on past due taxes on abandoned homes (HB 3016).  MHCO enthusiastically supports this bill - it is our top legislative priority.  As reported earlier this week the this legislative proposal passed out of the Oregon House of Representatives on a unanimous vote (60-0) in favor. 

HB 2564 - Rent Discussions

Unfortunately, the issue of rent in manufactured home communities received traction in both the House and Senate over the past 10 days.  In the House a proposal on inclusionary zoning (HB 2564) started to attract some discussion on rent and indirectly rent control.  HB 2564 lifts the  statewide preemption on inclusionary zoning (ORS 197.309) in Oregon.  As the discussion on this legislation moved forward it attracted interest in repealing the statewide preemption on rent control (ORS 91.255).  The House did NOT add that language, but it was tangentially mentioned in the House floor debate.  Here are three excerpts from the HB 2564 House floor debate that are concerning:

• Rep Gallegos (D-Hillsboro)  - Colleagues while I am supportive of 2564

On Monday morning the Oregon House of Reprentatives unanimously passed HB 3016 - the manufactured home landlord-tenant bill. This legislation contains the elimination of past due property taxes on an abandoned home when the community owner wants to purchase the abandoned home. This is MHCO's top legislative issue. We now move on to the Oregon Senate.

Question:  I am still unclear on the issue of whether we may insist that all applicants for tenancy produce a valid social security number. Is it legal that we do so?

Yesterday afternoon the coalition bill (HB 3016) passed out of the House Human Services and Housing Committee late yesterday afternoon on a unanimous vote.  Representative Parrish (R - West Linn) will carry the bill.    I expect the bill to pass out of the House later next week.  This legislation contains language that eliminates the landlords responsibility to pay past due taxes when he or she purchases an abandoned home in their community.  The past due tax on abandoned homes" is MHCO's top legislative issue for this legislative session.   After trying to address this issue for the past 12 years we are thrilled that we are finally moving forward on an issue that is important to every community in Oregon.

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