California MHP News

Fri, Nov 27, 2020 – People who live in mobile home parks are in a precarious position: They own the homes they live in, but rent the space underneath them. And few receive the protections that other types of renters enjoy.

In El Dorado County, where a new mobile park owner is offering decades-long leases, residents fearing displacement are hoping elected officials step in. While dozens of California counties and cities have passed protections of their own, few statewide rules exist.

It’s an individual fight,” said Tamara Janies, a mobile home park resident and active organizer with the Golden State Manufactured-Home Owners League. “Every county, every city has to fight for it individually.

In 2019, new owners purchased a park in Anaheim and raised space rents by as much as $200 a month. Residents of a park in Loomis have seen sharp rent hikes, too, leaving many who live on a fixed income fearful for their future.

The new owners at Sunset Estates Mobile Home Community in El Dorado Hills have offered some tenants 25-year leases, according to documents reviewed by CapRadio. That lease includes a clause that would exempt residents from “any ordinance, rule, regulation, or initiative measure… which establishes a maximum amount that a landlord may charge a tenant for rent.

Mon, Nov 16, 2020 – Update: On Sunday evening, KCRA 3 received the following statement from the California Department of Housing and Community Development:

The purpose of our mobile home park inspections is to protect the health and safety of residents. At Westwind Estates, our original inspection in February found 623 violations – some of which were imminent hazards; however, as of Thursday, November 13, 2020 only 35 violations remained. We expect the residents will, in fact, be able to clear the remaining violations, and we expect we will not have to issue a notice of suspension to the park.

In cases like this, it is always our practice to work as closely as possible with parks and residents to help clear violations in order to keep residents safe and stable in their homes.

Sat, Nov 14, 2020 – When she received a 60-day eviction notice, Rhoda Davison, a 91-year-old resident who’s lived in her West Sacramento mobile home park for over three decades, was sent into a panic.

Davison is one of dozens of residents facing eviction at Westwind Estates, a mobile home park that primarily serves lower-income and older residents. Some are fearful they will lose the homes they own and end up homeless.

Operated by Leasco Management Company, Westwind Estates sent 52 homes – nearly a third of the park’s tenants – eviction notices Oct. 30 for apparent health and safety violations identified by a state inspector in March. The evictions came after the California Department of Housing and Community Development told the park owner Oct. 6 in a letter that it would pull its operating permit because of outstanding violations.

But residents and community advocates say the majority of the evictions are unjustified. Several residents say they corrected violations earlier this year. Some violation notices were too vague, and residents were never able to get information from Leasco or the state Housing and Community Development department about how to fix errors. Some residents only speak Spanish and received violation letters in English only. Five families bought homes at the park after the initial state inspection in March and were never notified of outstanding violations.

Tue, Nov 10, 2020 – At least a dozen disgruntled mobile home park residents and their supporters held a protest in front of the America Canyon Mobile Home Park on Sunday.

Complaints against park management were varied. “Managers Discriminate Against Immigrants,” read one sign. The issue that precipitated Sunday’s protest involved residents being charged for tree trimming, several residents said.

Melissa Lamattina, a social worker who spent decades living at the park, and whose mother still does, said many residents feel intimidated by management and are afraid to speak up for fear of reprisals.

Someone who answered the phone at the park’s offices directed a reporter’s inquiries to the management at Southern California-based Santiago Communities. No response had been received as of Tuesday morning.

Residents were charged more than $800 to trim the trees in the park, and that’s not legal,” she said. “The manager made up her own Civil Code. There are a lot of non-English-speaking residents who are afraid of her. No literature is distributed in Spanish, and they are afraid to stand up for fear of being evicted.

Terri Pohrman, a longtime advocate with the Vallejo Mobile Home Coalition (VMC), said she organized Sunday’s protest to bring attention to the plight of the voiceless whose circumstances are already precarious.

Mon, Nov 2, 2020 – Larkspur won’t pursue rent control at a local mobile home park – at least for now.

Eighty-one tenants at Marin Park now face a $75 monthly rent hike retroactive to October. The increase, planned as part of the lease agreement, was deferred in July for four months as a result of negotiations with city officials, owners and tenants through the city’s mobile home ad hoc committee.

The committee was created in December to explore the possibility of a rent control ordinance and bring together constituents to discuss compromises. At the City Council meeting on Oct. 7, Councilman Gabe Paulson said that after 10 to 15 meetings the committee’s work was complete.

We came to the conclusion, for the time being, that rent control or a rent control ordinance is not the best course of action,” said Paulson, a member of the committee.