An 81-year-old man who has spent all but one year of his life in the City of San Leandro has run out of options and is being evicted from his mobile home.

KRON4 spoke with the man on Tuesday who says his new property owners are pricing him out.

Unit No. 13 at the Bayshore Commons has been 81-year-old John Busch’s home for the past 15 years– in a city that he’s lived in for eight decades.

His space is cramped, but he likes it, and this is where the retired design engineer planned to live out his life.

Then, he says the new owners that bought the park late last year changed everything.

“In October, they informed us that there was going to be a rate increase coming along in January,” Busch said.

John says Harmony Communities increased his rent by more than half–from $585 to $895.

A representative for Harmony tells KRON4 they offered John a subsidy to help offset the difference.

But John declined.

“I don’t want the taxpayer to have to pay for my increase in rent,” Busch said. “You know so that they can make a killing on me.”

Each month since January, John says he’s tried to pay his rent, but only with a 7 percent increase that he proposed. He says the property manager has only accepted one check.

San Leandro doesn’t have rent control.

Councilmember Corina Lopez says she’s discussing with her colleagues some ways to prevent situations like John’s.

“The last thing we want to do is create homelessness in this whole conversation about, you know, gentrification,” Lopez said. “And we don’t want to add to the problem. We want to prevent the problem from happening in the first place.”

“I don’t think I should be forced to be removed from a community I’ve known all my life,” Busch said.

John has reached an agreement with Harmony Communities to cancel his debt with the mobile home park if he leaves within a month but says he will continue to explore all of his legal options.

His friends have started an online fundraiser to help him raise money to do so.

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