By Scott Herhold,, Bay Area News GroupPOSTED: 06/17/16, 10:46 PM PDT
After Supervisor Joe Simitian announced Wednesday that the
county’s Housing Authority would join the fight to preserve the
Buena Vista Mobile Home Park as a refuge for the working class in
Palo Alto, a reporter asked him what it meant. Enough big words.
What was his spin?
By Sheila Dey, Executive Director, Western Manufactured Housing Communities Association.JUNE 20, 2016
The Sacramento Bee recently profiled mobile home
owners who are taking advantage of a “loop-hole” to reduce
their tax liability on beach front homes in Malibu, worth
millions of dollars. Needless to say, the Los Angeles County tax
assessor wants more property taxes, and the law is on the side of
property owners.
By Arlene Martinez, amartinez@vcstar.comPosted: June 18, 2016
It’s no secret some mobile home parks, which have tried
repeatedly (and unsuccessfully) to have rent control repealed,
sometimes use the long-term leases as a way to get out from under
them.
By Nathan Donato-Weinstein Real Estate Reporter Silicon Valley Business JournalJun 16, 2016, 5:11am PDT
The tool could be used if the Jisser family — which owns the
4.5-acre property and has been trying to close it since 2012 —
doesn’t accept a new offer to buy the park funded by Santa Clara
County, the city of Palo Alto and the county’s Housing Authority,
officials said Wednesday. That’s because the county and city have
now joined forces with the Housing Authority, which has eminent
domain power and signaled it’s agreeable to using it.
A wise man once said that the best way to get out of a hole is to
“stop digging.” Today California is short 1.5 million affordable
homes for families struggling to make ends meet, and the hole is
growing bigger each year.
Nearly half of California renters plan to buy a home, but
many can’t afford it, according to a survey released
Wednesday by the California Association of Realtors.
Napa Valley Register, Opinion: BOE Member George RunnerJune 2, 2016
Just one decade ago, California’s housing market crashed,
resulting in mass foreclosures and dramatic declines in home
values. Today, we face a very different problem — a severe
housing shortage.
Gov. Jerry Brown wants to provide more low-cost housing through
an initiative that could unite liberals and conservatives,
Republicans and Democrats. As he outlined last month in his
updated budget proposal, the plan would reduce costs to
homeowners and renters by increasing the housing supply through
reductions in the state’s labyrinthine construction-permit
process.
For years, Gov. Jerry Brown has resisted efforts to spend more
money to build affordable housing. As part of his revised budget
released Friday, Brown announced what he said was a better
solution: making it easier to build homes for low-income
residents. In a new package of legislation, Brown is proposing to
streamline the permitting process for developers building
affordable homes.
Those in California media and politics understand – finally –
that there is a housing crisis. However, there’s no agreement on
what precisely it is or how it might be addressed.
A federal court jury on Thursday ordered the city of Carson to
pay $3.3 million in damages to a mobile home park owner for
violating his constitutional rights when it repeatedly rejected
proposed rent increases at his park.
California politicians talk about the housing crisis constantly.
But while offering a few token inducements for new construction,
they’re unwilling to address the macro issue.
California’s affordable housing stock is not keeping up with its
population growth.
“It all boils down to this,” Thornberg said. “Taxes and
regulations are a problem for state businesses, but it’s not what
defines California. In the end, this California growth story is a
lack-of-housing story.”
California is in the midst of a severe and growing housing
crisis, and the Legislative leadership in Sacramento appears to
not have the faintest understanding about the causes and possible
real solutions to the problem.
Sheila Dey, Executive Director of the Western Manufactured Housing Communities Association.April 3, 2016
WMA’s executive director, Sheila Dey writes, “Instead of
addressing the root cause, some policymakers are championing rent
control, despite the fact that it has never effectively preserved
or expanded affordable housing stocks.”
STATE OF CALIFORNIA – BUSINESS, CONSUMER SERVICES, AND HOUSING
AGENCY EDMUND G. BROWN JR., Governor
DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
OFFICE OF THE DIRECTOR
The California Department of Housing and Community Development
Announces $43 Million for Mortgage Assistance and Rehabilitation
Loans
The Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) has
adopted Chapter 31B, Public Swimming Pools, of the California
Building Code (California Code of Regulations, Title 24, Part 2
[California Building Code, chapter 31B]) which provides standards
for the installation, renovation, alteration, addition,
relocation, and replacement of a public swimming pool or its
ancillary facilities, mechanical equipment, and related piping.
Specifically, HCD announced acceptance of the amendments into
Title 24 on June 1, 2022, in INFORMATION BULLETIN 2022-03.
