California MHP News

Wed, Apr 26, 2023 – A bill that would cap mobile home space rents has hit a legislative roadblock in Sacramento.

Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi, D-Torrance, had launched legislation that would cap mobile home space rents to no higher than 5 percent a year, the Orange County Register reported.

But the bill hit headwinds when a committee decided not to hear the bill because of pending litigation.

Assembly Bill 1035 would have limited mobile home space rents from increasing more than 3 percent plus the percentage of change in cost of living, or 5 percent a year, whichever is lower.

It would not preempt any local ordinance with even stronger protections for renters, Muratsuchi said. It aims to protect lower-income residents and seniors on fixed incomes from losing their mobile homes as rents across the state skyrocket.

The bill, however, was put on hold because of a lawsuit by Anaheim Mobile Estates challenging a new state law that imposed rent restrictions on mobile home parks located within at least two cities. The litigation could impact Muratsuchi’s bill.

Tue, Apr 25, 2023 – Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison announced today that his Office has opened a civil investigation into whether Investment Property Group UT (IPG) has collected or attempted to collect illegal utility charges from their residents at its Greenway Apartments complex in South Minneapolis and whether it sought to evict the largely-Somali tenants based on these faulty charges.

In late 2022, Greenway Apartments notified its tenants that they would be charged for utilities separately from their rent starting in 2023, charges which would be administered by a third-party billing company. Soon after the announcement, tenants found themselves facing exorbitant utility charges, some of which totaled more than $2,000. Last week, Isuroon, a local nonprofit that advocates for Somali women and girls, reported to the Attorney General’s Office that numerous Somali tenants at the Greenway Apartments had already paid thousands of dollars in questionable utility charges out of fear of being evicted, and that others were being evicted for not paying the charges. IPG, doing business as Eat Street Portfolio, LLC, has filed more than 30 eviction actions since February 2023.

After the Attorney General’s Office contacted IPG last week about its concerns that the eviction filings appear unlawful, IPG represented that it will not take any action to remove any Greenway Apartments tenants while the Attorney General’s investigation is pending, even if the court issued a writ of recovery in a case. Minnesota law allows Greenway Apartments tenants to stay in their home during an eviction case unless a Sheriff serves a writ of recovery on the tenant and tells the tenant to leave.

Attorney General Ellison’s investigation includes what steps Greenway Apartments and IPG have taken, if any, to comply with Minnesota’s landlord-tenant laws as well as whether the associated eviction filings are racially motivated, which the Minnesota Human Rights Act prohibits.

The Attorney General’s Office asks that anyone with information about Greenway Apartments or other IPG locations, especially tenants, also contact the Office. The Office can be reached by calling (651) 296-3353 or by filling out a tenant report form online in English, Spanish, or Somali.

Mon, Apr 24, 2023 – Many local activists are looking to two Orange County state senators for leadership in a key upcoming vote on a proposal to expand an existing 2019 statewide rent control law – further capping rents at 5% increases to combat the state’s unaffordable housing crisis.

At the same time, apartment owner advocates are looking at these legislators with a very different outcome in mind.

But state Senators Tom Umberg and Dave Min aren’t talking.

The local focus on Umberg and Min comes as calls for rent control have swept through the county, with community groups and activists pushing to maintain a momentum that started with a local rent cap approved in Santa Ana two years ago, while local city councils and residents grapple with inflation, rising rents and stagnating wages.

Groups like Orange County’s apartment association, which is currently suing Santa Ana over the city’s rent control law, are already seeing problems with the new proposed legislation.

Dubbed the Homelessness Prevention Act, Senate Bill 567 is slated for a state Senate Judiciary Committee vote on April 25, where Senators Dave Min and Tom Umberg sit.

Thu, Apr 20, 2023 – The city is considering waiving registration fees to ease rising cost burdens on mobile home park owners and residents.

While mobile home park owners are required to pay the fee, they can pass on half of that fee to park residents. The collected fees go toward a fund that helps the city pay to administer Chapter 16B of its municipal code, also known as the Manufactured Homes Fair Practices ordinance.

First formed in the 1980s, the ordinance provides a rent control element that caps rent increases for only mobile home parks in the city and ensures park owners receive a fair profit. Oceanside is one of the few cities in the region with a rent control ordinance for mobile home parks. There are currently 17 mobile home parks in Oceanside that lease spaces to owners of mobile or manufactured homes.

The city’s Manufactured Homes Fair Practices Commission is the quasi-judicial body that approves rent increases following Chapter 16B rules.

The registration fees are also used to pay consultants, attorneys and other costs associated with special hearings, like a recent rent increase request for Laguna Vista Estates Mobile Home Park, a senior-restricted park.

Thu, Apr 20, 2023 – Several residents of La Hacienda Mobile Home Estates are fighting potential evictions, filing a lawsuit to prevent the landlord from kicking them out.

Forming the Hacienda Homeowners for Justice group, nine families living at the north Fresno park filed a lawsuit Wednesday, asking a judge to prevent Harmony Communities’ eviction practices.

The families are represented by Mariah C. Thompson and Marisol F. Aguilar of California Rural Legal Assistance Inc., a nonprofit law firm.

Harmony purchased the park in October 2022 for $1.4 million, the lawsuit states. Several residents – who are not already under eviction proceedings – received a 12-month eviction notice. Harmony said it is closing the park and intends to sell.

Other tenants received five-day or seven-day notices to vacate. The lawsuit states that Stockton-based Harmony did not follow proper eviction law. The residents are asking a judge for a preliminary and permanent injunction from enforcing the eviction notices. The lawsuit also wants Harmony to be penalized $2,000 per violation as the law allows.

Wed, Apr 19, 2023 – Carson will create a mobile home park overlay district, adding an extra layer of protection to preserve what some residents have called their last bastion of affordable housing options. The City Council approved the overlay district this week.

Essentially, only mobile home parks will be allowed in that district. If property owners within that area want to redevelop a piece of land on which a mobile home park sits, they will have to apply for and receive a zoning change from the city, and provide a comparable number of affordable housing units for the residents there.

The City Council wants to put a zone in place, an overlay zone, so if there’s a park owner that wants to close the park from a land use perspective, City Attorney Sunny Soltani, (the council) will have more discretion.

Carson has one of the most stringent mobile home rent control laws in the state, according to a staff report. This has resulted in a lengthy series of lawsuits with mobile home park owners who wanted to capitalize on their investments by increasing rents or converting their land uses to get around state and local rent-control laws.

The city’s latest legal contender was the owner of Rancho Dominguez, a 5.74-acre, 81 space, all-age community mobile home park in an industrial area. The property owner had wanted to close the park and develop it into apartments.

Sun, Apr 16, 2023 – Low-interest loans supported by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have fueled a spree of acquisitions of mobile home parks where new owners drive up costs for longtime residents.

WASHINGTON – It wasn’t long after residents of a mobile home senior community in Ohio were told that their property had been bought by a new owner, with the help of financing from federally backed Freddie Mac, that their costs started going up.

Adding to residents’ frustration over the rising costs is who helped finance the sale of the property to Legacy Communities LLC, which runs dozens of mobile home parks across the country. The loan for the acquisition was financed by Freddie Mac – a government-sponsored enterprise that has been mandated to help support housing for low-income Americans since it was taken over by the federal government during the 2008 housing crisis.

But rather than preserving one of the last bastions of affordable housing, the role that Freddie Mac and its peer Fannie Mae have played in the market has done the opposite in some instances, affordable housing advocates and lawmakers say. They say the access to relatively cheap, low-risk capital provided by the federally backed entities has contributed to a surge in mobile home park acquisitions where new owners are raising rents and fees.

Fannie and Freddie have added fuel to the fire. There’s just no question, said Paul Bradley, president of ROC USA, which helps residents finance the purchase of their communities. This competition to provide the lowest cost loans to park investors and their grab for market share helped fuel this.

Thu, Apr 13, 2023 – Mobile home residents in Huntington Beach, who say they have been feeling the heat for the last couple of years, are supporting a new bill that could ease some of their rent concerns.

Assembly Bill 1035 was introduced Feb. 15 by state Assemblyman Al Muratsuchi (D-Torrance), and is set to be reviewed by the Assembly Housing and Community Development Committee on Wednesday.

According to its text, the bill would enact the Mobile Home Affordability Act. It would prohibit the management of a mobile home park from increasing the gross rental rate for a tenancy for a space more than 3% plus the percentage change in the cost of living – or 5%, whichever is lower – over the course of any 12-month period.

AB 1035 would also prohibit management from increasing the gross rental rate for a tenancy in more than two increments over a 12-month period, after the tenant maintains the tenancy for a year.

Wed, Apr 12, 2023 – Brookvale Terrace Mobile Home Park in Capitola marks 30 years of resident ownership this April, and more than 50 years as a mobile home park. A potluck with residents on April 15 will celebrate the small community, its memories and the success of privately owning and managing a mobile home park.

Brookvale Terrace was constructed in the early 1970s by John Minges of Scotts Valley and his partners, according to The History of Noble Gulch and Brookvale Terrace Mobile Home Park, written by resident Stephanie Kirby.

In the intervening decades, increasing conflict over rent increases in Capitola led to rent stabilization ordinances and lawsuits with park owners. Abraham Keh bought the park in 1981, and battled with the residents and Capitola over rent and maintenance, as detailed by Kirby. In 1993, residents bought the 20-acre property for $6.8 million with the help of a bond established by Capitola and established the Brookvale Terrace Property Owners Association.

Today the park is overseen by a volunteer Board of Directors and is one of the county’s most desirable mobile home parks. BrookvaleTerrace.com

Wed, Apr 12, 2023 – It’s hard to image a celebrity living in a trailer park. But at the Paradise Cove Mobile Home Park, that’s exactly the case.

In Malibu, California, stars like Sarah Paulson, Matthew McConaughey, and Stevie Nicks have bought properties in the park, where some trailers can sell for as much as $5 million, according to a new report in The Wall Street Journal. But the trend is changing the character of a community that’s existed since the 1950s.

Across the trailer park, wealthy homeowners are buying up property and creating mini-mansions. Big-name architecture firms are tasked with drawing up the exteriors, while high-end interior designers curate the inside.

In just one example, a Marmol Radziner designed mobile home is currently listed for $4 million, while about 30 trailers have sold in the past three years for up to $5 million, according to Zillow data cited by The Wall Street Journal. Agents, however, have heard of off-market deals stretching to $7 million. On top of that, residents have to pay rent on their parcel of land, ranging from about $1,500 to $4,000 a month.

Sat, Apr 8, 2023 – Portland, Oregon (AP) – When Gadiel Galvez learned that the owner of his mobile home park south of Seattle was looking to sell, he and other residents worried their largely Latino community would be bulldozed to make way for another Amazon warehouse.

So, they decided to form a cooperative and buy their park in Lakewood, Washington. With help from a nonprofit that advises communities like theirs and helps them secure loans, they bought it for $5.25 million. Since becoming owners in September, everyone’s worked to make improvements.

With rents rising at mobile home parks nationwide, advocates tout the cooperative model as a way to preserve one of the last affordable housing options for people with low- or fixed-incomes and to give them a greater voice in managing their parks.

So far these resident-owned communities are proving to be a reliable option. None of the more than 300 in the network of nonprofit ROC USA have defaulted or closed. One decided to sell back to the county housing authority it originally purchased from.

They have a 100% track record of success, which tells you that it’s working for the residents, said George McCarthy, president and CEO of the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, a Cambridge, Massachusetts, think tank. Resident ownership is an absolute bulwark against the intrusion of institutional capital in the market.

Thu, Apr 6, 2023 – Wisconsin Attorney General Josh Kaul and Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection Secretary Randy Romanski announced Thursday a $75,000 settlement agreement with Impact MHC Property Management, LLC (Impact), a Colorado-based operator of manufactured home communities (MHCs) in Wisconsin, and RV Horizons, Inc. (RV Horizons), for $75,000 and a series of compliance requirements.

Since 2018, the Wisconsin Department of Agriculture, Trade and Consumer Protection (DATCP) has received over 50 complaints from tenants at communities operated by RV Horizons or Impact. Most of these tenants own their own home and rent the lot from Impact (or formerly from RV Horizons); some rent both the home and the lot. DATCP’s investigation determined RV Horizons and Impact violated laws that protect tenants in manufactured home communities from unfair rental practices, and DATCP referred these findings to the Wisconsin Department of Justice (DOJ), according to a written statement.

RV Horizons and Impact have agreed to a Consent Judgment that includes a permanent injunction prohibiting them from charging tenants a fee in return for allowing the movement of a manufactured home into or out from a community. The injunction stops enforcement of provisions in the companies’ Wisconsin contracts that effectively imposed such fees. The judgment also includes a two-year compliance monitoring program. RV Horizons and Impact will refund $3,514.14 in overcharges of municipal fees to tenants identified during the State’s investigation; conduct an audit of all tenant accounts going back to January 1, 2018, and credit the accounts of all current tenants with the amount of any overpayment; send a payment to any affected former tenants; and file a report with DATCP. The Consent Judgment includes a judgment for civil forfeiture and assessments of $75,000, and payment of the State’s costs of $10,000. RV Horizons and Impact deny liability for the State’s allegations, according to the statement.