RESIDENTS in a mobile home community have been given a letter warning that their mobile home park could close.
Multiple tenants have spoken out in fear that they could be evicted from their homes.
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Christopher Brown is one resident who has lived in his Little Woods Mobile Villa home for 27 years.
Brown owns his mobile home - but not the land underneath.
Tenants in the community, located in Petaluma, California, about an hour north of San Francisco, pay a management company, Harmony Communities LLC, to rent space in the mobile home park.
For Brown, that costs about $600 per month.
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But in July, Brown received a possible closure notice from the park's owners, stating that they're unsure if they can continue to operate the park.
The letter read in part that the park owners "conclude they can no longer economically operate the park based on measures taken by state and local government," according to CBS News.
The letter came after Petaluma’s city council began discussing the possibility of instating rent control.
“I went to my room, I sat down, I read [the letter] and I read it again," Brown told local news station KQED.
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"I was just blown away. I read it a third time. My mind wasn’t wrapping around it. In that moment, I just felt broken.”
Richard Lehnherr has lived at Little Woods for 33 years and now shares his home with his half-brother Darrell Pike.
The two were baffled when they received the letter, too.
"They said that they were going to take it 50 miles away. We didn't know where they were going to take it," Pike told CBS News.
"This thing wouldn't make it five miles down the road without falling apart."
Petaluma did adopt stronger rent control laws, specifically about mobile home parks, on July 17, KQED reported.
Brown and other residents have since banded together to take action.
Under the group name Neighbors United, the residents are working to maintain their homes.
“We talk about how we’re going to get the word out into the community, how we’re going to continue to organize our get-togethers, our meetings, and what actions we’re going to take,” Brown said.
Residents at Little Woods gathered on August 29 to speak out against the park's potential closure.
Other tenants at nearby mobile home parks also came out to support the cause.
Brown was among those who spoke out at the meeting.
“I can’t sleep at night. I worry about my neighbors, their children, and the elderly.” Brown said.
“The Petaluma community does not need more homeless on the street.”
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Harmony Communities, the management company, sent a letter to residents stating that they would have to submit a relocation impact reporting order to close the park down.
A representative from the company was scheduled to interview tenants at Little Woods on September 6.
