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Sterling Shores residents urge Lake County to impose moratorium and demand transparency over pass-through fees
Summary
Multiple Sterling Shores residents told the Lake County board that recent pass-through charges and new fees imposed by park management (named in the record as Keratas/Keratoss) are pricing seniors and low-income tenants out and urged supervisors to place a rent-stabilization ordinance and an emergency moratorium on the agenda.
Several residents of Sterling Shores Mobile Home Park urged the Lake County board during public comment to take immediate steps to limit recent fee increases and to force greater transparency from the park's management company, identified in public remarks as Keratas (also transcribed as Keratoss).
Ted Mlight asked the board to obtain profit-and-loss statements for Sterling Shores specifically, saying residents had only received company-wide financial overviews and that occupants should be allowed to see what the park is spending. "What we are asking for is... Sterling Shores profit and loss statements," Mlight said, requesting the board's help securing that information.
Multiple speakers described small, recurring charges that are eroding household budgets. Elizabeth Chur, 93, said the park added a roughly $60 monthly pass-through and other line items including a $1.25 mailing fee and a $3.30 portal fee, and called the cumulative effect "a form of elder abuse." "They are pricing all of the lower income people out of the park," Chur said.
Other residents pressed the board to act quickly. One speaker identified as Milin asked supervisors to put a rent-stabilization ordinance (RSO) and a retroactive moratorium on the next agenda, saying other counties had enacted similar protections. Tom Flanigan asked why an emergency vote or agenda placement had not occurred sooner and estimated initial pass-throughs could total "$450,000," warning that tenants pushed into poverty would rely on county services.
Jod Johnson, volunteer vice president for the Golden State Manufactured-Home Owners League (GSMOL) for 13 counties, advised supervisors that an immediate moratorium would allow time to draft an effective RSO and cited arbitration decisions from other cities where large investor-owned parks were found to have profited from rent increases. "Failing to enact a moratorium will protect out-of-area billionaires at the expense of the loss of housing affordability," Johnson said.
Residents said they cannot relocate their homes, that many are elderly on fixed incomes, and that increases to space rent and related pass-throughs force choices between food, medicine and housing. "When the corporations purchase these parks, they raise space rent amounts where residents have to choose power, food, or space rent," Tina Fouch said.
The public comments did not include any formal motion or vote; several speakers asked the board to place a moratorium or RSO on a future agenda and to require targeted financial disclosures from park owners. The chair closed public comment without taking action and said staff had collected contact information for follow-up.
What happens next: speakers repeatedly urged supervisors to place an item on the agenda; no emergency vote or formal action was recorded during the comment period.
