Complaint / Review
Doug Hobkirk - Manufactured Housing Community Preservationists
Subjects residents including myself to illegal rules and unethical treatment ripoff

MHCP is a federally funded non-profit organizaion, founded in 1993 and where I have lived since 2000. It is operated by a volunteer Board of Directors (BOD) and is a 501 (C) 3 corporation which is exempt from federal income taxes.

The BOD has let the current Executive Director and his domestic partner, who is the bookkeeper for the corporation, have autonomous control over the income and management. They really do act as if they own the place.

This is a CHARITY!!! It was formed for the purpose of preserving manufactured housing communities for low income families. The ED and his partner, the bookkeeper, who is now addressed by the board as the "Chief Financial Officer" (CFO), do not own a blade of grass or grain of sand in any one of the four manufactured housing communities MHCP manages. But they treat it as a privately owned for-profit company.

There are illegal labor practices (overtime not paid, for one), illegal entry onto residents' private spaces, harassment of residents, discrimination, the list goes on.

The ethical questions are boundless. We're supposed to be involved in management of the parks. Yet we're unable to effectively make our communities better places to live.

All of these issues have come before the Board of Directors. They have done nothing.

There are four commuities with approximately 234 low-income home owners and families living in them. We pay all of the expenses for running our communities; the one where I live has become quite run down. Expenses continue to rise and the organization's finances are in the red.

There is an obvious concern about the continued viability of the communities MHCP is responsible for. The neighborhoods around us develop and we are looking shabbier and shabbier.

There is a small group of us who are working to secure MHCP and all of her communities for the future. We've talked to a King County Council member and there have been some reports filed with the KC Office of Civil Rights. If we could all get together we could make a much-needed change before its too late.

If there are others out there who would be interested in helping please get in touch through the consumer complaints.