“Threat: A statement of an intention to inflict pain, injury, damage or other hostile action on someone in retribution for something done or not done.”

Make no mistake about it: Rent control for mobile home parks is coming to the city of Lakeport. The process to make rent control law is now in progress, and, it is inexorable.
 
The owners of my park, Fairgrounds Village, have begun the counter-attack: They have sent out a letter, which offers a 10-year lease, allegedly tied to the consumer price index, but demanding a minimum of 3-percent increase in space rent annually (whether CPI, and thus Social Security benefits, which are tied to CPI, go up, or not), and a maximum of 8 percent.
 
The owners failed to point out in their letter, that if a tenant signs a long-term lease (defined as any lease over 12 months), that tenant is not eligible for rent control.
 
Not content with lying by omission, and apparently desperate, the owners then resort to a threat: Residents who refuse to sign the 10-year lease “can expect large rent increases … ”
 
Interestingly, I was invited recently to attend a meeting of management and a selected number of tenants. After the meeting, I spoke with one of the owners. I told him that I lived very humbly, but, that I had never been happier, and they I did not need much, but that I did not want to be homeless, and that if rent increases continued to exceed Social Security benefits, I would be.

I told him that what brings me joy is hiking and kayaking and bicycling, and my friends and family, none of which are high ticket items. And, that being forced out of retirement, I was working with young people, and that my work was more satisfying than anything I had previously done in my life.
 
The owner told me that he had gone on a two-year mission to a third world country, and admired the people that he served because they were very happy while being very poor.
 
Later, it hit me that our lives were mirror images: I began my working life seeking my fortune and devoted my energies to my business, and now, late in life, I found service rewarding. He, on the other hand, began his career at the service of the poor, and now, he was busy amassing material wealth, and, if the poor got in his way, then, they would have to be dealt with by whatever means necessary.
 
I thought about the classic film, “The Magnificent Seven.” Yul Brenner, the leader of a group of gunmen, takes the side of the villagers against the marauding bandits. Eli Wallach, playing the leader of the bandits, cannot understand that turn of events. He wonders out loud why a gunman would take the side of the peasants. The bandit explains to the noble gunman, “If God did not want them shorn, he would not have made them sheep.”
 
My first emotion, when I read the letter, was anger. I thought, “These guys go right for the jugular.”

Then, I felt a sense of compassion: How pathetic these owners are, that in their consciousness, money trumps morality, and that they are so desperate for dollars, that they would resort to threatening and intimidating old folks.

I want to tell the owners: Gentlemen, you have lost your way.

Nelson Strasser lives in Lakeport, Calif.

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Written by: Nelson Strasser

Published: 01 May 2014