KILLINGWORTH — Some 150 senior citizens jammed the community center at Beechwood Mobile Home Park Sunday to strategize with state lawmakers on how to deal with rent increases they say they can’t afford on their fixed incomes.
State Sen. Christine Cohen, D-12, and state Rep. Chris Aniskovich, R-35, told mobile home park residents how to prepare for Thursday’s public hearing on a bill that would mandate towns with at least 10,000 residents to establish a fair rent commission.
Lawmakers also spoke about another proposed law, a rent stabilization bill that could cap rent increases only for mobile home parks.
The fair rent commission bill, SB No. 907, would address all rentals — apartments and mobile homes.
The public hearing is set for 10 am Feb. 2 before the legislature’s Housing Committee and is only one of many steps in the bill-making process.
Although it is too late to give spoken testimony either in person or via Zoom, the House Committee will accept written testimony after the hearing, according to Cohen.
Written testimony may be submitted through the online portal at https:www.cga.ct.gove/hsg/ and click on the link that says “Submit Public Hearing Testimony.”
And while Killingworth has just established a Fair Rent Commission, (its first meeting was slated for Feb. 1) and the town of Clinton also has one, many shoreline towns do not.
But Aniskovich, who is also chairman of the Clinton Town Council, noted that few residents make use of the town’s fair rent commission.
“It’s been used very few times. It’s been on our books for a while and it’s there for people to use it if they need it,” he told the group.
Both Aniskovich, a Republican and Cohen, a Democrat, support both proposed bills.
“This really is a nonpartisan issue, this is something that affects human beings,” Cohen said. “Hopefully it will have widespread support on both sides of the aisle.” Cohen had met with the group previously.
The fair rent commission bill would affect the shoreline towns of East Haven, Branford, Guilford and Old Saybrook, according to Raphael Podolsky, an attorney with Connecticut Legal Assistance who specializes in housing law.
The legislators urged members in the crowd to provide testimony at both public hearings — although the rent stabilization bill is still being drafted.
“We want this fair rent commission bill passed or we want this rent stabilization bill to pass,” Cohen said.
“Having your own individual testimony is compelling opposed to a form letter,” she said. “Legislators are getting the same form email from hundreds of people — that’s less effective than having your own personalized email or letter you send to the committee.”
She also suggested that residents email their legislators from their communities.
Proposed by Cohen, the rent stabilization bill SB-37, which specifically addresses mobile home parks, is still before the Housing Committee. A hearing date is expected to be set sometime next week.
Under Cohen’s bill, rent increases would be held at no more than 2.5 percent each year. Cohen had been working with the group since last fall.
Podolsky is working with the Beechwood residents and Cohen on the rent stabilization bill.
Both of these bills aim to help tenants deal with recent soaring rental costs, which the legislature has been looking into since August.
The meeting at Beechwood Mobile Home Park, a Sun Communities property, was spurred by a 7.28 percent rent increase at the 200-home park, according to resident Jackie Vece.
A representative from Sun Communities could not be reached for comment.
According to its website, Sun Communities bought Beechwood and 30 other manufactured housing communities for $343.6 million in 2019, according to Global News Wire. Since 2011, the publicly-traded company has closed on more than 300 properties with a transaction value of over $5 billion, the New Haven Register reported.
By gobbling up smaller housing communities and merging them, Sun Communities is “rolling up” properties and squeezing residents for extra money, Connecticut Attorney General Tong explained at his talk at Beechwood, the Register reported.
Vece said residents don’t have many options.
“Most of us moved here because we were downsizing and because buying/renting our homes was cheaper than trying to maintain what I’ll call a regular homestead,” she said.
However, many residents are feeling the pinch from the rent increases as they live on fixed incomes, she said.
“Can we move? A lot of people here live on Social Security and that’s the problem. When you’re living on Social Security it makes it very tight,” Vece said.
“There’s really not a lot of options for where we could go,” she said, noting that there is no senior housing in Killingworth and very little on the shoreline.
“There is some in Clinton but the last I’ve heard is that the waiting list is five years,” Vece said.
Rent increases at similar parks across the state also drew attendance.
In addition to the state lawmakers, Tong and US Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., met with Beechwood residents in support.
“Any bill that caps rents has to have some provisions so that the park owner can come in and say, ‘I have to raise this more than whatever the standard is, because my costs have gone up,'” Podolsky said.
The owner has to show why the increase is necessary, he added.
While a rent commission bill can help mobile home park residents, “They don’t have the powers” of a rent stabilization law, Podolsky said.
Fair rent commissions “can’t do the things a rent cap can do,” Podolsky said.
“A fair rent commission has the power to roll back the rent increase that is — the statute uses very specific terminology — it is ‘so excessive as to be harsh and unconscionable,'” Podolsky explained. In this case, the burden of proof is on the tenant, he said.
New Haven Register reporter Austin Mirmina contributed to this story.