The mobile home owners part of the mobile home task force held six meetings at senior centers in Lake County to discuss long-term leases versus a rent control ordinance. The overwhelming response was to get on with a rent control ordinance and why are you taking so long to do it. The reason is that the mobile home task force is exploring all alternatives before considering a rent control ordinance. We must protect affordable housing.
The goal of a rent control ordinance in the mobile home parks in the unincorporated portions of Lake County is to preserve affordable housing and to protect mobile home owners against unreasonable space rental charges as well as to provide park owners a reasonable rate of return on their investment.
Mobile home owners hold a unique form of tenancy. Unlike other homeowners, they do not own the land underlying their homes; but, unlike renters of apartments, they do own their own dwellings. Many have invested substantial sums in their mobile homes, creating a substantial equity interest.
Despite their name, mobile homes, once set on their allotted spaces, are not truly mobile. Mobile home park residents lack of mobility and lack of land ownership places them very much at the mercy of park owners, who, without rent regulation, can destroy mobile home owners lives and investments simply by raising the rent to the point where the mobile home owner must either sell his or her mobile home at distress-sale prices, or submit to a voluntary surrender, foreclosure or bankruptcy.
The fact that mobile home owners are typically retired, and living on fixed incomes, increases their exposure. The lack of any vacant spaces to which they might move creates a monopoly market which ensures that a homeowner who cannot afford the rent will lose his or her investment. State law does not regulate space rents in mobile home parks. Local rent control fills this gap.
Some of the reasons for the board of supervisors to pass a rent control ordinance are: It sets up a regulatory framework within which park owners conduct business with their residents; it keeps rent increases within reasonable bounds; as rents go up, the resale value of mobile homes declines; as rents are unreasonably raised, the ability of the prospective buyer may not be able to receive financing; it retains both mobile home park housing and affordable housing; it provides long-term stability for residents in view of the monopoly market in which they are trapped; and finally, rent control discourages speculation by park owners and prevents economic syndicates from buying and selling quickly for windfall profits.
Anita Sombs
Sterling Shores
