California MHP News

Mon, Mar 20, 2023 – While the state has wielded most of its enforcement powers at Stockton Park Village, its residents have endured varying degrees of filth and hazardous conditions for more than four years.

The state of California has given the housing agency limited powers to intervene when conditions at mobile home parks get this bad. It can strip owners of their ability to collect rent until they fix the problems – which records show it did three times at Stockton Park Village. But it can’t step in and help those residents itself. Instead, it can eventually refer the problem to the local city or county district attorney’s office, which can bring a civil action to abate the nuisance and ultimately appoint a receiver, or temporary caretaker – which it did in the summer of 2021.

CalMatters reviewed hundreds of pages of records in a five-month investigation of California’s mobile home parks. Stockton Park Village is not representative of all or even most mobile home parks in the state. State housing department records show it’s one of about 40 parks with suspended licenses in a state with about 4,500 state-licensed mobile home parks. But county officials, the park’s receiver, attorneys for the park’s residents and advocates who work with residents elsewhere say they believe the number of mobile home parks in disrepair could actually be much higher because of their old age and shoddy construction.

Under state law, a park could go up to 20 years without a full inspection; inspectors rely mainly on residents to file complaints. While inspectors visited 91% of state mobile home parks in the last decade, according to a recent state audit, only half were full inspections, and 330 parks got no visit at all.

In choosing which parks to inspect, the state housing department told the auditor it prioritized parks based on the number and severity of complaints the parks receive and the time since the last park inspection. Parks without any recorded complaints, then, had a risk of serious undetected health or safety violations, the audit concluded.

I get calls almost every day from people who have varying stages of information about what their rights are, said Hilary Mosher, a volunteer regional manager in Northern California for the Golden State Manufactured-Home Owners League, the main lobbying group for park residents. When I suggest that they file a complaint with (the state housing department), about 90% of them back off because they’re afraid of retaliation.

From the 2023 MRL Introduction:

Note: Mobilehome Residency Law Protection Program (MRLPP). Beginning July 1, 2021, any mobilehome or manufactured homeowner living in a mobilehome park under a rental agreement may submit a complaint for an alleged violation of the Mobilehome Residency Law. Any mobilehome or manufactured homeowner residing in a permitted mobilehome park is eligible to submit a complaint. Complaints must be submitted to HCD. HCD provides assistance to help resolve and coordinate resolution of the most severe alleged violations of the Mobilehome Residency Law. For questions regarding the MRLPP please call 1-800-952-8356, email MRLComplaint@HCD.CA.gov or visit https://www.HCD.CA.gov/.

For the 2023 edition, there are significant legislation changes that affect the MRL. Senate Bill 940 (CIV 798.7 and CIV 798.45) allows locally passed rent protections to apply towards newly constructed mobile home spaces, and creates a 10-year exemption for spaces in those parks. AB 2031 (CIV 798.53) it clarifies that residents can bring a designated representative, requires parks to offer homeowners both in-person and remote meeting options, and expands the list of topics about which park managers must meet with the residents when requested.