California MHP News

Sun, Apr 7, 2019 – Mobile homes may seem like an affordable housing option, but large investment companies are making them less and less so.

Tue, Apr 9, 2019 – Inspired by Last Week Tonight with John Oliver’s segment on mobile home parks, Rep. Julie Fahey gave a remonstrance today on the floor of the Oregon House.

Define: Remonstrance – An earnest presentation of reasons for opposition or grievance especially a document formally stating such points.
Merriam-Webster > Remonstrance

Fri, Apr 5, 2019 (MHAction Report Released Thu, Feb 14, 2019) – Our new report with Private Equity Stakeholder Project and Americans for Financial Reform details private equity convergence on manufactured housing.

Many of the largest private equity and real estate investors in the world, managing more than $1.77 trillion in assets, have bought up manufactured home communities at a rapid pace and raised rents and fees sharply, posing a dramatic new threat to the economic security of millions of seniors, people with disabilities, families, and immigrants in need of low-cost housing, according to our new report.

Private equity companies and predatory real estate investors are buying up mobile home communities, raising rents, and getting richer off the backs of poor people, said Sabrina Ramirez, manufactured home resident from Palo Alto, California.
MHAction (Manufactured Housing Action)

Download the Private Equity Giants Report
File Type: PDF, Pages: 19, Size: 1.9 MB

Sun, Nov 20, 2022 – By unanimous vote, Alamosa City Council approved a motion to provide up to $1.1 million in gap funding to the San Luis Valley Housing Coalition for the purchase of Century Mobile Home Park at its meeting Wednesday.

In exchange for the funding, SLVHC is committed to repaying the entirety of funds to the city within one year and to list the city on the deed with the property basically serving as collateral until the funding is repaid.

If successful, SLVHC’s purchase would keep the property under local control, honoring the residents’ stated preference for the park to be owned and managed by the non-profit and effectively stopping its purchase by an out-of-state private buyer who already owns one mobile home park in the city and — has happened there - would most likely raise lot rental fees.

Wed, Nov 16, 2022 – The San Luis Valley Housing Coalition is looking to purchase the Century Mobile Home Park in south Alamosa to add to its affording housing efforts. The housing non-profit will go before the Alamosa City Council on Wednesday to ask for assistance with the purchase.

The city council will have a work session on the sale of Century Mobile Home Park ahead of its meeting Wednesday. The work session is slated for 6 p.m. and will take up a recommendation from City Manager Heather Brooks and staff that the city provide up to $1.1 million in gap funding for the purchase of Century Mobile Home Park by the SLV Housing Coalition.

The owner of the mobile park has an offer of $6.8 million from a private buyer, but because the property appraised for $5.765 million, the non-profit SLV Housing Coalition was only able to offer the appraised value.

The city says the gap in the appraisal is due to the assumption that the entire sewer system needs replacement. Brooks and her staff are recommending that the city help the SLV Housing Coalition meet the $6.8 million asking price by providing gap funding until the non-profit housing coalition can apply for additional grants to meet the purchase price and repair the sewer system.

Mon, Sep 12, 2022 – The clock is ticking on the Nov. 1 deadline by which time a bid has to be on the table to buy Century Mobile Home Park, should the 104 homeowners residing there – many who have lived in the park for years ­– vote to take their future in their own hands.

After getting blindsided by the news in July that the property is being sold for the stunning price of $6.8 million cash, homeowners have discussed which of three options they should take in response – options legally available to them by Colorado state law.

They can opt do nothing, let the $6.8 million sale go through and hope for the best. They can form a Resident Owned Community (ROC) where they vote on who among them will comprise the board that governs the park, establish rules under which the park will operate, and obtain $6.8 million financing to buy the park themselves. Or they can vote to have a non-profit – in this case, SLV Housing Coalition (SLVHC) – purchase the park and then provide ongoing, on-site management.

A fourth option – where the government purchases the park – has been presented to the homeowners but has not been discussed much since then, largely due to a collective lack of interest.

Thu, Sep 8, 2022 – It’s hard to know, ‘cause everything’s clear as mud. That’s the voice of one Century Mobile Home Park resident who’s been attending meetings at the old Boyd School in Alamosa to hear about the sale of the mobile home park and the options owners and renters have.

Abraham Arrigotti, who owns Living Well Communities, has made a $6.8 million cash offer to buy the mobile home park. Arrigotti, of San Clemente, CA, has been on a mobile home park buying spree in the San Luis Valley, purchasing Country Mobile Homes in Monte Vista earlier this year and Town and Country Mobile Home Park in Alamosa in 2021.

If he gets Century Mobile, the largest park in the San Luis Valley with 184 spaces, expect rents to go up. It’s what Arrigotti did when he purchased Town and Country, and what he has told San Luis Valley Housing Coalition Executive Director Dawn Melgares he plans to do if he closes on Century Mobile.

Fri, Aug 5, 2022 – More than 100 individuals and families – many of whom are vulnerable, living on low income and have children – received news two weeks ago that has the potential to completely upend their lives, costing them the homes they have bought and paid for and ultimately leaving them with no place else to live.

The situation could be very devastating, says Dawn Melgares, executive director of the San Luis Valley Housing Coalition, in an exclusive interview with the Valley Courier.

It all started with a letter from San Juan Vista, LLC of Las Vegas, Nevada, owners of Century Mobile Home Park, located at 17th Street and State Avenue in Alamosa. Delivered on July 20, all 148 residents of the mobile home park were notified that the property is being sold. According to the notice – also sent to the City of Alamosa – the owners have received an offer from an undisclosed buyer to purchase the property for $6.8 million. In cash.

Mon, Nov 7, 2022 – A mobile home rent stabilization ordinance is back on the table in Torrance following pleas from residents of Skyline Mobile Home Park, who are facing significant rent hikes under the park’s new ownership.

Tuesday, Nov. 8, may be Election Day, but it will also mark the third time the City Council considers enacting a mobile home RSO after declining to do so at meetings in June and September. The proposed RSO comes at the behest of Councilman Asam Sheikh and would limit annual rent increases to 4% plus the regional rate of inflation for a total raise not to exceed 10%.

Since Saunders Property Group purchased Skyline Mobile Home Park in October 2021, residents of the 265-lot senior-only park have seen their rents increase dramatically.

A 15.9% average rent increase was announced in October 2021 and enacted in two stages – a $100 increase in November 2021 and a $96 increase in September. Residents’ rents will increase another 10% beginning in January.

Thu, Sep 15, 2022 – The Torrance City Council declined to pass a proposed rent stabilization ordinance for mobile homes this week – despite pleas from Skyline Mobile Home Park residents, who are facing substantial rent increases – and instead supported a rent deal proposed by the complex’s owners.

Skyline is a 265-lot senior-only mobile home park, where many of the residents are retired and living on fixed incomes.

The new ownership told residents they would increase rents by $196, an approximately 15.9% hike, shortly after purchasing the park for $67 million in October 2021.