Gary Hermes, Aging Artfully in the Sonoma Oaks Mobile Home Park
Gary Hermes moved to his home in the Sonoma Oaks Mobile Home Park in 2006. The 1969 mobile home needed significant work, and a low-interest loan from the County helped him replace the roof, repair dry rot, remodel the bathroom, and make other improvements. Over the years, he has created a carefully considered home layered with art, handmade objects, family keepsakes, and things collected over a lifetime.
Now retired and living primarily on Social Security, Gary teaches online classes offered by Santa Rosa Junior College for older adults to supplement his fixed income. Rent protections on his space in the park have kept his housing costs low enough for him to remain in Sonoma Valley, a place he had felt drawn to since childhood.
Gary’s connection to Sonoma Valley began in his childhood. He was born in Napa and would accompany his Italian grandmother when she would dance the polka at Little Switzerland (now Bucks Place). He remembers falling in love with Sonoma then. As an adult, his work took him to San Francisco and eventually Marin, where he worked providing supportive services for seniors living in low-income housing.
“Sonoma is a special place, it’s a sacred place. I have also been to Italy a few times, and it’s the closest I can come to feeling like I’m in Italy. I always feel grateful for being here, always grateful, really blessed that this is where I wound up. It’s a small town, but still cosmopolitan in so many ways.”
— Gary Hermes
Mobile homes had been part of Gary’s housing history long before he came to Sonoma. In the mid-1970s, he bought a trailer in Greenbrae for about $7,000 and lived there for many years. He had looked at housing in Sonoma as early as the 1980s but couldn’t afford what he found. After retiring, he realized there were mobile home parks here that might make living in Sonoma possible.
The 1969 model mobile home that Gary bought had already been modified when he started renovations in 2006. However, the home had not been maintained and needed a lot of work. Gary was able to get a low-interest loan from the County, which he eventually paid back, to replace the roof, repair the dry rot, and remodel the bathroom. The process wasn’t easy. He had problems with the contractor and repeatedly had to call them back to address work that hadn’t been completed properly. A County advocate helped him navigate the process until the work was finally done.
“It was a mess. I was going around with color chips. My brother said, you know, it’s going to take more than paint.”
— Gary Hermes
Gary owns the home he has made his temple, but rents the space beneath it. It was the affordable space rent that made his investment in the home and its extensive repairs feasible. Fortunately, the City of Sonoma has a Rent Stabilization Ordinance that limits annual space rent increases for mobile home owners so that Gary can continue to enjoy his home and remain in Sonoma, where he continues to teach, volunteer, garden and participate in the park’s social activities.
“I call my home my temple. A friend of mine calls herself spiritually eclectic, and I feel the same way. I’m drawn to anything spiritual. I love things that are human-made, that have spirit to them.”
— Gary Hermes
“Since COVID, we’re starting to have social activities again. There are periodic get-togethers where people bring food and socialize, a meditation group, water aerobics, a gardening club, a textile group—a number of interest groups are forming now.”
— Gary Hermes
Gary’s beautiful and affordable home and garden are the fulfillment of his long-time dream to come home to Sonoma Valley. His home connects him to the vibrant network of mobile home owners and renters, both within Sonoma Oaks Mobile Mome Park and across the neighboring parks that make up the tri-park community in the City of Sonoma.
"With my limited income, having stable, affordable rent for my mobile home space is essential. I am in my late 80's and the wait list for subsidized senior housing here is longer than the years I probably have left. I would have to leave Sonoma and try to find something affordable elsewhere."
— Gary Hermes
Curated by The Future Collective, photos by Kayla Schmah