By U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s (HUD)
Office of Housing is announcing that it has created a new Office
of Manufactured Housing Programs as an independent office
reporting directly to Assistant Secretary for Housing and Federal
Housing Commissioner Julia Gordon.
Helping our neighbors is one of the core foundations of American
life. Whenever possible we want to find ways to ease the burden
of those around us. Which is why so many people feel inclined to
support policies such as “rent control.” Stability in housing
pricing sounds like a positive solution. The problem is —
sustainable legislative solutions are never that simple. ARTICLE
WHEREAS severe winter storms struck California beginning in late
February bringing damaging winds and historic precipitation,
including snowfall in areas unaccustomed to snow; and
READ MORE…
WHEREAS on March 1, 2023, I proclaimed a State of Emergency to
exist in 13 counties as a result of winter storms that struck
California beginning in late February, and which have continued
to significantly impact those 13 identified counties, as well as
several additional counties across California; and
READ MORE…
Los Angeles County will end its COVID-19 emergency declaration at
the end of March, becoming the latest region to take that step
amid improving pandemic conditions. READ MORE
SACRAMENTO – Today, Governor Gavin Newsom announced that the
COVID-19 State of Emergency will end on February 28, 2023,
charting the path to phasing out one of the most effective and
necessary tools that California has used to combat
COVID-19.
WMA is doing everything possible to keep our members informed on
the fast moving developments concerning the COVID-19 pandemic.
Here is a list of Frequently Asked Questions we’ve compiled
to help as you navigate this unprecedented time in our industry.
Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders released a $2.5-trillion housing
policy plan on Tuesday that aims to end homelessness in the U.S.
and enact a national cap on annual rent increases.
READ MORE
During his campaign for governor, Newsom set a goal of building
3.5 million new units of housing by 2025. Nothing that occurred
in the Capitol this year would even begin to make that
happen.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom and top Democrats announced Friday
evening that they have reached an agreement to place limits on
how much landlords can increase a tenant’s rent each year.
The compromise offers a stronger path forward for Assembly Bill
1482, which cleared a key budget committee earlier on
Friday.
There was a jarring reality check in the Legislature last week
for interest groups plotting to change Proposition 13 and raise
property taxes on major businesses.
The reality is that raising any taxes will be very hard to sell
voters.
Organizers of a 2020 “split-roll” initiative that would generate
billions of dollars through higher commercial property taxes
intend to scrap a ballot proposal they’ve already qualified and
file a new version Tuesday that provides additional protections
for small businesses and other changes aimed at boosting voter
support.
Ever since Proposition 13, California’s iconic property tax
limit, was passed by voters in 1978, unions and their political
allies have yearned to either repeal or modify it. After years of
cogitation, they gathered enough voter signatures to put their
“Schools and Communities First” measure on the ballot.
California voters made their views on rent control clear last
November when they rejected Proposition 10 by nearly 20
percentage points.
While Californians face an unprecedented housing crisis, they
understood that rent control doesn’t work. Period. Instead,
it discourages development that’s essential for bringing down
housing prices.
Apparently Gov. Gavin Newsom and Assemblyman David Chiu, D-San
Francisco, didn’t get the message.
On Wednesday, he announced his support for Assembly
Bill 1482 by Assemblyman David Chiu, D-San Francisco, which with
some big exceptions would limit annual rent increases statewide
to 7% plus inflation for the next three years. Newsom wants Chiu
to be even stricter in limiting rate hikes.
An effort to cap annual rent increases in California received a
boost Wednesday when Gov. Gavin Newsom embraced the idea and said
he wants even more restrictions than currently planned.
“I’m hopeful … that I will get on my desk in the very near term a
rent cap bill because it is long overdue in the state of
California,” Newsom said at a Wednesday event in Los
Angeles unveiling new funding to protect renters from
evictions.
READ MORE
A long-awaited study detailing how much cities and counties
charge developers to build housing in California found that such
costs are often hidden, vary widely across the state and have
slowed growth.
While public agencies are spending billions of dollars to fund
affordable housing projects and homeless shelters, they have no
plan to increase California’s stock of manufactured homes, the
nation’s most affordable source of unsubsidized housing.
Justice denied, or only justice delayed? After more than three
decades, property owners have finally regained the right to sue
for a taking of their property in federal court! If you’re
wondering how this could ever have been in question, a little
Supreme Court history is in order.
Attempting to strike a balance between the interests of renters
and property owners, Inglewood approved a rent control ordinance
this week that caps increases at 5% — lower than first proposed —
but imposes protections against unfair evictions.
Landlords and realtor groups earned a win in the California
Capitol this week after lawmakers shelved a bill to restrict
evictions and amended another to limit caps on rent.
The No on Measure F campaign has vastly outspent the campaign in
favor of the measure, which would introduce rent stabilization at
Vineyard Valley Mobile Home Park.
READ MORE
A closely-watched bill that would ban steep rent hikes throughout
California has been softened — slightly — in effort to win over
skeptics as a legislative deadline looms.
The law would sunset after 10 years, and it would no longer apply
to properties built within the past decade, a rolling exemption
that would end once a building hit the 10-year mark.
READ MORE
A bill aimed at protecting California tenants from “egregious”
rent hikes cleared a key hurdle in the state Legislature today,
less than 24 hours after pro-tenant groups learned their latest
try to expand tighter rent controls throughout California is
flailing in the Capitol.
Welcome to the world of the $70 million trailer park, which could
only happen in California. The backdrop for this economic
insanity is the city of Palo Alto, which is in Silicon Valley,
and where the median-priced home is nearly $4,000,000, according
to Zillow.
READ MORE
Gov. Gavin Newsom signaled on Thursday that he wants to sign some
kind of housing affordability law just after a controversial rent
control proposal cleared its first committee in the Legislature.
Read More
Several Highland mobile home residents asking for “rent
stabilization” during the March 26 City Council meeting learned
that should the city pass such an ordinance California law
exempts their long-term mobile home leases from the rent control.
During the last City Council meeting, several Highland mobile
home residents took the public comment opportunity to voice
complaints about conditions and rising costs at their mobile home
parks asking the council to consider placing a rent control
ordinance on a future meeting agenda.
ST. HELENA — A lawsuit is challenging the wording of a June 4
ballot measure that will determine the fate of rent stabilization
at St. Helena’s only mobile home park.
Tom Vence, a Vineyard Valley Mobile Home Park resident who
described himself last October as the park’s weekend manager,
filed suit in Napa County Superior Court on March 25. His suit
claims that the City Council’s agreed-upon ballot language for
Measure F violates state laws requiring ballot questions to be
truthful and impartial.
The Arcata City Council directed city staff to research the
possibility of placing a temporary ban on the closure and
conversion of mobile home parks to a different use Wednesday
night.
A ban on closing and converting mobile home parks for other use
would allow time for the city to create zoning that would protect
mobile home park residents from the threat of eviction. Once a
zoning type for mobile home parks is in place, securing land use
for mobile home parks alone, the city could then create an
ordinance according to these zoning protections.
A lawsuit is challenging the wording of a June 4 ballot measure
that will determine the fate of rent stabilization at St.
Helena’s only mobile home park.
Tom Vence, a Vineyard Valley Mobile Home Park resident who
described himself last October as the park’s weekend manager,
filed suit in Napa County Superior Court on March 25. His suit
claims that the City Council’s agreed-upon ballot language for
Measure F violates state laws requiring ballot questions to be
truthful and impartial.
Mobile home park residents in Anaheim and Fullerton may see any
planned rent increases capped soon as council members consider
rent increase relief options after seniors petitioned both city
councils in March.
The Pleasanton City Council has ratified a new rent stabilization
agreement with the owners of Hacienda Mobile Home Park on
Vineyard Avenue that allows annual increases of no more than 5%
through December 2029, when the terms of the agreement expire.
Two months ago, when the Public Policy Institute of California
asked the state’s residents to name the top issues that newly
inaugurated Gov. Gavin Newsom and the Legislature should address,
immigration was No. 1.
Jobs and environmental issues followed, with “homelessness” a
distant fourth, cited by just 6 percent of those surveyed.
The new owner of a senior mobile home park straddling the border
of Fullerton and Anaheim is pulling back on monthly rent
increases of more than $200 for nearly 400 residents until at
least Sept. 1, saying the company had done “too much, too soon.”
“The increasing concerns that were being voiced by the residents
required a pause and an opportunity to initiate a dialogue with
those residents to better understand their concerns,” said Peter
Whittingham, a spokesman for Saunders Property Company, which
purchased the Rancho La Paz Mobilehome Park last month.
The Pasadena City Council on Monday approved an expanded set of
protections for people who rent their homes, which officials say
strikes a compromise between the interests of tenants and their
landlords.
Renter advocates last year pushed the council to
strengthen the city’s 2004 tenant protection law,
last updated in 2017, after apartment renters at a South
Roosevelt Avenue property were told to pack their bags within 60
days after the building changed hands.
Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom said Tuesday he’s continuing to work
with state lawmakers on what he hopes will be a deal to stabilize
California’s rising rents.
“We’ve been working behind the scenes with a number of the key
parties and participants to see if there is a — forgive the
vernacular — a deal on this that could be a constructive first
step,” Newsom told reporters after hosting a roundtable on
affordable housing in Sacramento. “I’m not wedded to any specific
proposal right now.”
There’s long been a somewhat competitive relationship between the
power of governors and legislators to make law and the ability of
voters to overturn what the politicians wrought and/or make law
themselves via the initiative process.
However in recent years that relationship has evolved from merely
competitive to something approaching hostility.
Proponents of rent control, which is threatening to make a
comeback in the California Legislature, often portray the
opposition as consisting entirely of landlords and developers.
The implication is that the unbridled greed of real estate
interests is all that stands in their way.
In the wake of a failed ballot measure to expand rent control,
California Democratic lawmakers are introducing a host of new
measures that aim to increase protections for tenants.
The bills, unveiled Thursday, include efforts to prevent
landlords statewide from raising rents above a to-be-determined
level, and to let cities and counties restrict rents on more
apartments than currently allowed.
A group of Assembly Democrats introduced a bundle of housing
bills on Thursday, signaling to Gavin Newsom that they were ready
to work with him on fulfilling one of the new
governor’s campaign promises.
In that package is Assembly Bill 1482, a measure that would
cap annual rent increases. The bill would not apply to local
ordinances or units already under rent control.
California is a costly place to live. Homes cost 2.5 times the
national average and rents are 50 percent higher than the
national average. According to the non-partisan State Legislative
Analyst’s Office, California’s housing crisis is fueled by a lack
of supply and high demand.
Californians not only understand this, they feel it. In a recent
CNBC poll, the high cost of homeownership was the leading reason
why 53 percent of Californians are considering leaving the state,
a jump over the 49 percent polled last year and this view is
strongest among millennials (63 percent).
The City Council put off a decision on a mobile home rent
protection ordinance this week after over a dozen speakers told
the council it simply wasn’t ready as proposed. The mobile home
rent stabilization ordinance would have allowed a renter to have
their rent reviewed by a city staff member on increases over 4
percent annually.The ordinance will be similar to the city’s rent
review policy for apartments, which offers mediation between
tenants and property owners on disputes once rent is increased by
a certain threshold.
After San Leandro mobile home owners, many seniors with limited
means, spoke Monday night of suffering harassment by their mobile
home park owners, along with fears of retaliation, the San
Leandro City Council voted to continue an agenda item that would
have given them some protections from displacement.
The council, which unanimously voted to direct staff to further
study the proposed ordinance, also accepted a “gentlemen’s
agreement” offered by the city’s nine mobile home park owners to
not raise rents for 90 days, while they meet with city staff.
It’s no secret that California is a very expensive place to live.
California homes are being sold at two-and-half times the
national average and rents are twice as much.
Perhaps, there is no greater example that the dream of home
ownership is dead than a taxpayer-financed housing project in San
Jose.
In an attempt to slow displacement and upheaval in communities
where rents are rising faster than incomes, Oregon has just
adopted the nation’s first statewide rent control law, capping
the annual increase landlords may impose on tenants. Sounds
dramatic? Well, it could happen in California too, where Gov.
Gavin Newsom and California lawmakers are discussing similar
efforts to stabilize rents amid a long-term, crisis-level
housing shortage.
SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Oregon Gov. Kate Brown signed the nation’s
first statewide mandatory rent control measure on Thursday,
giving a victory to housing advocates who say spiraling rent
costs in the economically booming state have fueled widespread
homelessness and housing insecurity.
Brown, a Democrat, said the legislation will provide “some
immediate relief to Oregonians struggling to keep up with rising
rents and a tight rental market.”
At last! Democracy prevails! Residents of Vineyard Valley as well
as those registered in the City of St. Helena will be allowed to
vote on their preference for or against the Rent Stabilization
Ordinance recently passed by the city council. The ordinance
applies only to Vineyard Valley.
What happened to all that talk about rent control?
Less than four months after an initiative to allow
cities to expand rent control failed overwhelmingly at the ballot
box, and less than four months after then-incoming Gov. Gavin
Newsom talked about brokering a compromise between tenant and
landlord groups, no new legislation from lawmakers or specific
proposals from the Newsom administration have been introduced to
cap how much rents can rise.
SANTA CRUZ — New legislation proposed by a Monterey Bay state
assemblyman would strengthen protections for mobile home
residents facing displacement, in the name of California’s
affordable housing goals.
The issue of rent stabilization at Vineyard Valley Mobile Home
Park could be decided by St. Helena voters as early as June.
The City Council directed staff Tuesday to come back with a
resolution calling a special election at the earliest possible
date, which staff said would be June 4.
California might be about to undermine the best argument it has
to attract new business and jobs. A ballot initiative has
qualified to eliminate the protections against property tax
increases guaranteed by Proposition 13, to the extent applied to
business property. The importance of Proposition 13 to job growth
in our state has to be better understood: at present, our state’s
political leaders appear primed to support this change.
WATSONVILLE — The city of Watsonville is moving forward with new
zoning protections for its mobile and manufactured homes, the
latest step in an ongoing effort to ensure an adequate supply of
affordable housing for low-income residents.
Under the new rules, each of Watsonville’s nine mobile home parks
would be protected from development unless a special use permit
is granted for a narrow range of other high-priority land uses,
such as churches, cemeteries, child care centers and schools.
Oceanside plans to better regulate its short-term vacation
rentals by hiring a full-time enforcement officer, requiring
licenses and annual fees, and streamlining the tax collection
process.
The proposal outlined by first-term Councilman Chris Rodriguez
got the City Council’s unanimous approval Wednesday, along with
the stipulation that details of the program be worked out by city
staffers and ready for the council’s consideration in 120 days.
CHICO, Calif. — The Paradise Town Council met in the Chico City
Council chambers on Wednesday night, to discuss Paradise’s
post-Camp Fire housing shortage.
FEMA may be putting trailers on private property in Paradise, to
temporarily solve the housing crisis. Manufactured homes on
private parcels already make up 14-percent of single family
residences, in Paradise.
But, what FEMA is proposing is slightly different.
After years of bitter back-and-forth with resistant neighbors,
the newly elected San Jose City Council pushed ahead with a
project to house formerly homeless people southeast of Willow
Glen in converted shipping containers.
The council approved a rezoning request that will allow the
containers to be placed and turned into 60 permanent supportive
housing units on Evans Lane near Canoas Gardens Ave.
The price tag? Some $600,000 per unit, or $2,500 per square foot,
according to Rachel VanderVeen, a deputy director in the city’s
Housing Department.
It’s been almost 41 years since Proposition 13 passed in 1978,
lowering property taxes for every home, apartment building,
commercial structure, farm and parking lot in California.
Through almost all that time, the initiative sponsored by
longtime anti-tax gadflies Howard Jarvis and Paul Gann remained a
sacred cow, a third rail that election officials and candidates
of every stripe feared to touch for fear of political
electrocution.
SANTA CRUZ — The Santa Cruz City Council took the first step
toward reviving recently lapsed landlord eviction limits Tuesday,
putting in place temporary rules for up to a year in a 4-3 vote
just before midnight.
If the council gives final approval to the interim ordinance with
a second vote at a coming meeting, landlords once again will need
to ensure they have “just cause” for their tenant evictions.
Acceptable eviction reasons range from failure to pay rent to
nuisance violations.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom says conversations are underway on
rent stabilization, after voters rejected a rent control ballot
measure last fall.
Newsom spoke Tuesday in San Jose at a roundtable discussion on
California’s housing crisis, saying the state is speaking with
housing industry groups about possible next steps following
the defeat of Proposition 10 in November.
Opponents of rent stabilization at Vineyard Valley Mobile Home
Park have gathered enough signatures to force the City Council to
repeal the new ordinance or put it on the ballot.
Opponents needed to collect 344 valid signatures, equivalent to
10 percent of St. Helena’s registered voters. They submitted 579
signatures, and of the 364 checked by the Napa County Election
Division, 345 were confirmed to be valid.
Over strong objections from the owners of Vineyard Valley Mobile
Home Park, the St. Helena City Council voted 3-2 Tuesday in favor
of an ordinance that would cap rent increases for some of the
park’s residents.
Councilmembers Paul Dohring, Geoff Ellsworth and Mary Koberstein
voted for the new rent stabilization ordinance, with Mayor Alan
Galbraith and Councilmember Peter White voting against it. The
ordinance will undergo a few modifications before coming back to
the council for final adoption.
A hard-fought and controversial campaign to expand rent control
in California, home to some of the priciest housing markets in
the nation, was defeated Tuesday night.
Proposition 10, the measure to broaden rent control’s reach by
repealing a state law restricting its use, trailed throughout the
night as it was soundly rejected by the state’s voters.
Once thought of as a sacred cow, Proposition 13, the tax revolt
measure passed in 1978, is now under attack. Schools and
Communities First, a coalition of nearly 300 groups and leaders,
has qualified an initiative for the Nov. 2020 ballot that would
lift caps on property taxes for commercial and industrial
properties.
The coalition says that if the initiative is approved, it will
reclaim more than $11 billion a year for K-12 schools, community
college, cities, counties and special districts that support
everything from parks to libraries.
For some of California’s largest real estate investors, the fight
over an initiative to expand rent control goes beyond the state’s
borders. They’ve opened their wallets to prove it.
Eight of California’s top owners of apartment buildings and their
related business entities have donated nearly half of the $74
million raised to defeat Proposition 10, according to a Los
Angeles Times analysis of state campaign finance data.
Most economists argue that rent control will lead to a reduction
in the quality and quantity of housing available. Yet frustration
over rising rents seems to be boiling over in California and both
sides promote research that they say proves their point.
The Union-Tribune is answering the most common questions about
Prop 10 and what it means.
Sacramento’s rent-control wars hit a boil this week. And became
incredibly convoluted as well.
A petition drive to stifle rent hikes by landlords got a boost at
City Hall, albeit from a not entirely supportive City Council.
The same day, a competing proposal, kinder to landlords, written
by three council members, saw its first formal hearing. And a
business group vowed a lawsuit to kill the petition effort.
By: DONALD WITTMAN and JESSE CUNHAOctober 19, 2018
Soaring rents are a serious problem. Many Californians are paying
much more rent than in the past or cannot afford to live where
they’d like to. Unfortunately, Proposition 10’s solution —
allowing for more rent control — does not fix this problem for
the community as a whole. Instead it helps current tenants who
decide to stay in their units long term, but hurts future renters
and those who might want or need to move.
A rent-controlled apartment in the Bay Area is a coveted find
that tenants will hang onto as long as possible. So why is a
California ballot measure that would allow cities to expand rent
control not just losing here, but trailing by a wider margin than
it is statewide?
Coming to an election near you in 2020: the future of Proposition
13, California’s landmark law limiting property taxes.
Secretary of State Alex Padilla announced Monday that
an initiative to scale back the protections for
commercial and industrial properties is eligible for the November
2020 ballot. The proponents, led by a coalition of
civil rights groups and community organizations, could still
decide before then not to move forward with the measure.
Facing opposition from the owners of Vineyard Valley Mobile Home
Park and many of its residents, the St. Helena City Council is
moving ahead with a rent stabilization ordinance that would limit
rent increases in the park.
An ordinance would cap rent increases for park residents on
short-term leases of one year or less. Residents would be able to
choose between a short-term lease that would be subject to rent
stabilization or a long-term contract that would not.
California voters will decide on Nov. 6 whether government rent
controls would make housing more affordable or even more
expensive. Controlling rent hikes would help keep tenants under
shelter and off the street. At least that’s the theory.
But controls also could drive up rent prices by reducing housing
supply in several ways, it’s contended.
The main reason for California’s affordable housing shortage is
simple: too much demand and not enough supply. Prop. 10 does
nothing to address that disparity and indeed could make it worse.
For that reason and others, we urge you to vote no on Proposition
10.
In less than five weeks, California voters will decide on
Proposition 10, a ballot initiative that would allow cities and
counties across the state to expand rent control.
Supporters of the measure say it will offer relief for tenants
during a time of unprecedented housing affordability problems in
California. Opponents contend it will stymie housing construction
— the levels are already low — and further increase costs.
Here’s a rundown of some of the difficulties renters face and how
Proposition 10 would affect them and broader affordability
issues.
Proposition 10 is a fine example of chasing a disaster with a
catastrophe.
The disaster is the housing crisis in California. The escalation
of home prices and rents has far outpaced wage growth, helping to
give California the nation’s highest poverty rate when adjusted
for the cost of living.
The catastrophe is Prop. 10, the “Local Rent Control Initiative.”
But critics of such strict rent control, including most
economists, argue it will stymie housing development, worsening
the state’s already severe housing shortage. Some landlords, they
say, will simply sell their properties if it becomes far less
profitable to rent them — as many did in Berkeley and Santa
Monica decades ago.
A November ballot initiative that would allow cities to enact
strong rent control across California is widely unpopular, even
among renters, according to a new Public Policy Institute of
California poll.
Roughly half of likely voters — 48 percent — oppose Proposition
10, according to the poll — the first conducted on the measure.
Just 36 percent are in favor and 16 percent are undecided, the
poll found.
A fight over rent control has raged for three years in the
Silicon Valley suburb of Mountain View with no end in sight.
It began in October 2015, when Mountain View City Council members
rejected pleas from tenant activists to limit rent increases.
Tenant groups responded with a November 2016 ballot initiative to
restrict rent hikes, and council members countered by putting a
less stringent proposal before voters.
Many have long held the assumption that mobile homes don’t
increase in value — or, at the very least, they rise in value at
a much slower rate than traditional homes.
But recent data suggests the opposite is true — and that could
have major implications in the push for increased affordable
housing nationwide.
When California voters get tired of waiting for their politicians
to act, they turn to the statewide ballot initiative as their
weapon of last resort.
The Sacramento Bee’s readers have been telling us for months
through the “Your Voice” feature that the out-of-control cost of
housing has become a major concern — if not cause for alarm. So
it should be no surprise that when Californians cast their
general election ballots this fall, more than one-third of the
measures on their ballot are designed to address the need for
affordable housing.
This November, Californians will have the chance to go to the
polls and vote on a whole slew of issues including who will be
selected to lead our state as our next governor, whether to keep
or repeal a recently enacted gas tax, or whether it makes sense
to keep or eliminate daylight savings. Unfortunately, there is
another proposition on the ballot, Proposition 10, that if passed
will have profoundly negative effects on California’s economy,
our housing industry, including the manufactured housing
industry, renters, and apartment owners both large and small.
A majority of the St. Helena City Council wants to continue
investigating a rent stabilization ordinance for Vineyard Valley
Mobile Home Park, an idea that’s sharply dividing park residents.
An ordinance would give Vineyard Valley residents the choice of
signing a short-term lease of 12 months or less in which rent
increases would be capped or a long-term lease that would not be
subject to the ordinance.
SANTA CRUZ >> When mobile-home owners get into a dispute
with the park owners from whom they rent their lot, their only
real recourse is to hire an attorney and take the property owner
to court.
State law gives the residents a number of rights — on paper — but
there is no active enforcement and many elderly and low-income
residents can’t afford the legal fees to make their case,
advocates say. Instead, they are left at risk of negligence or
unequal treatment on the part of park owners.
Rent hikes greater than 3 percent will be banned temporarily at
mobile home parks in unincorporated Los Angeles County starting
in early October, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors
decided.
The county board voted 3-1 on Tuesday, Sept. 4, to approve on a
second reading a six-month moratorium on rent hikes for mobile
home spaces, a move designed to protect those residents from
preemptive rent hikes while permanent rent control for such
housing is under consideration. The measure becomes effective in
30 days.
BY: CAYLYN WRIGHT AND JIM LOFGRENSeptember 03, 2018
For months, the city of Sacramento has been in the throes of a
heated debate over the city’s affordable housing problem, its
root cause and potential solutions – highlighted by two workshops
arranged by the mayor.
At an initial session held Aug. 14, there was general agreement
that the root cause is a lack of supply. There also was consensus
about the remedy: Build more units, and faster, through new
funding sources and incentives to attract private-sector
investment.
A Santa Clara County Superior Court judge this week rejected
arguments by Mountain View mobile home tenants that they should
also be covered under the city’s rent control program.
In his decision, Judge Mark Pierce upheld a February vote by
the city’s Rental Housing Committee to not protect mobile homes
under the city’s Community Stabilization and Fair Rent Act
(CSFRA).
Manufactured housing is the least expensive type of housing. So,
considering the severe shortage of affordable housing in the US,
why is the annual production of new manufactured housing so low?
Manufactured housing is 35 to 47 percent cheaper per square foot
than new or existing site-built housing, yet the number of
manufactured homes shipped each year has gone from averaging
242,000 per year between 1977 and 1993 to just 92,500 units in
2017.
An estimated 5.6 percent of all Americans, or 17.7 million
people, live in manufactured homes, commonly referred to as
“mobile homes” or “trailers.” Metros located in the South and
Southwest have the highest share of households living in mobile
homes.
The number of mobile homes and trailer parks in the United States
grew rapidly in the 1980s, when the federal government slashed
funding for affordable housing. Today, mobile homes are the
largest source of unsubsidized affordable housing in the U.S.,
providing shelter for one in ten households living below the
poverty line.
While others walked away from manufactured homes, Don Glisson Jr.
stuck around.
He’s seen the industry’s ups and downs in his 36 years working at
Triad Financial Services, the third-biggest lender to buyers of
factory-made houses in the U.S. The rock-bottom was in the early
2000s, when rival firms were getting fat
on subprime loans.
Unincorporated portions of Los Angeles County could see rent
control for mobile homes reinstated more than 23 years after
county leaders allowed similar restrictions to lapse.
On a 3-1 vote Tuesday, Aug. 14, the Los Angeles County Board of
Supervisors supported a six-month moratorium on rent hikes
greater than 3 percent for mobile home spaces. The stop-gap
measure is designed to keep park owners from raising rent before
a permanent rent control ordinance under review takes
effect.
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday moved to
impose temporary rent caps on mobile homes. The vote comes amid a
broader, controversial push to remove barriers to rent control
across California in response to rising housing costs.
In a 3-1 vote, supervisors approved temporary caps on so-called
space rents — the price park owners charge residents to keep
their homes on the premises. The ordinance, which will come back
for final approval next month, would be in effect for 180 days
and limit rent increases to 3% a year for leases of 12 months and
less.
Tenants rights advocates in two Southern California cities missed
the deadline to get rent control initiatives on the November
ballot, although they still have a shot at the election cycle in
2020, city and elections officials said Friday, Aug. 3.
Santa Ana and Glendale became the fifth and sixth cities in the
region to fail to get rent referendums before voters this
fall. Initiative drives already failed in four other local
cities: Long Beach, Pasadena,
Inglewood and Pomona.
Once an overlooked sector in the housing market, manufactured or
“mobile” home REITs have become one of Wall Street’s quietest
moneymakers.
These communities, often referred to as trailer parks, have
evolved beyond the negative stigma that plagued them in the past,
with many resembling high-end gated neighborhoods today. The
manufactured-home market is benefiting from high demand from
residents in search of more affordable workforce housing
options.
The City of Chino reached a $1.5 million settlement this month
with a mobile home park owner who brought a lawsuit against the
city, alleging the council’s actions caused a loss of income by
delaying and interfering with plans to convert the park to
resident ownership.
The lawsuit, which originally asked for $34 million, was filed in
July 2010 by Chino MHC, owner of Lamplighter Chino Mobile Home
Park, which is on the northwest corner of Philadelphia Street and
Ramona Avenue.
Members of the City Council want the city to conduct more study
and public outreach before deciding whether to pursue a rent
stabilization ordinance that would affect Vineyard Valley Mobile
Home Park.
The council told staff to arrange informational meetings at the
park and delve into the various legal and technical questions
that would be involved in crafting an ordinance to bring rent
control to St. Helena’s only mobile home park.
For sale signs are cropping up throughout the Driftwood Mobile
Home Park in Westminster since notices starting going out in late
June announcing rent increases as high as $300 a month.
For many, that’s an increase of 30 percent to 40 percent, more
than many longtime residents at this senior park of tidy, lushly
landscaped mobile homes can afford. Many here protest
they’re on fixed incomes and will have to move if the increases
take effect.
Sacramento faces a serious affordable housing problem. The Bee
editorial board calls on the mayor, city council, developers and
SEIU-backed tenants’ organizations to set aside their differences
and forge a compromise that takes aggressive action (“The mayor
has a plan to fix the housing crisis. Now he needs help,”
Editorials, July 16).
We agree. That’s why our coalition, Citizens for Affordable
Housing, is committed to finding fair and common-sense answers.
