Another mobile home park may fall prey to developers
137 families, seniors in Redwood City may be forced out
REDWOOD CITY >> Still in a state of shock after suddenly receiving a notice that their mobile home park near Redwood City may be sold to make way for apartments, dozens of low-income families are growing increasingly anxious about having to pull up stakes and move out.
Many of those who live in Bayshore Villa’s 137 lots are Spanishspeaking cleaners and gardeners, office workers and long-time Redwood City seniors who consider the park an affordable oasis amid a sea of million-dollar homes.
Bayshore Villa families aren’t alone: Hundreds of mobile home dwellers across Silicon Valley face similar fears of being kicked out as developers eye the properties as prime real estate for new marketrate housing and mixed-use projects to meet the Bay Area’s insatiable demand for more homes.
The plight of Bayshore Villa residents is similar in some ways to
“A lot of people ask for a lot of requirements, a lot of them want references and for your trailer to be up to code. It’s going to be very difficult finding somewhere to go here. I feel like I have to start now.”
— Angeles Gonzalez, of Bayshore Villa
that faced by about 400 dwellers at Buena Vista Mobile Home Park in Palo Alto several years ago.
Those residents — also largely low-income and Spanish speaking — were to be evicted because the park’s owner wanted to redevelop the site into a housing subdivision.
But after public outcry and protracted legal maneuvers, a deal was struck in 2017 to hand off the park to the Housing Authority of Santa Clara County, which partnered with
the county and the city of Palo Alto to buy Buena Vista for about $40 million and run it.
Apex Residential Management, the Villa’s management group, recently told residents it’s moving forward with conversations started four months ago to sell the mobile home park to a developer who plans to build an apartment complex there.
That promises to be a long road. Bayshore Villa is one of seven mobile home communities in unincorporated San Mateo County that has certain protections bestowed by the Board of Supervisors a few years ago aimed at preserving affordable housing options.
Though it’s early in the process, Board of Supervisors President Warren Slocum said he has met with planning staff and attorneys to begin discussions on potential county action.
Slocum said the county has met with occupants of mobile home parks in the past on several issues and likely will do the same with Bayshore Villa by holding public meetings and informing residents about their rights.
Over the next several years, the county and park ownership likely will battle out the proposed land-use change, a potential schedule, relocation assistance for residents and the eventual teardown of the site.
“We are just simply talking about it,” Bayshore Villa community manager Airene Williamson said. “I
would imagine just knowing how San Mateo works that it won’t happen for years. If we move forward, there’ll be lots of notices and hearings. We are definitely moving forward with it, though nothing happens quickly in this county.”
But dozens of Bayshore Villa residents have most of their money tied up in their mobile homes and face the daunting task of finding a new place for their trailers in already packed Bay Area parks or moving on to the Central Valley. Some are considering moving out of California altogether.
Angeles Gonzalez, 40, who lives with her grandfather and uncle, said she doesn’t know what she’ll do with her large trailer, which she said most mobile home parks in the area won’t be able to accommodate.
A house cleaner, Gonzalez said her three years living at Bayshore Villa have been peaceful and uneventful, though frequent turnover
in management always kept her on her toes.
Now she has to worry about where to go next.
“A lot of people ask for a lot of requirements, a lot of them want references and for your trailer to be up to code,” Gonzalez said. “It’s going to be very difficult finding somewhere to go here. I feel like I have to start now.”
Like Gonzalez, some other residents said they have begun planning the potential sale of their homes or relocating because of horror stories they’ve heard about yearslong searches for housing in the Bay Area. Finding comparable rents — the average is about $1,300 at Bayshore Villa — is unlikely, Gonzalez said.
Having run across the trailer park trying to find other neighbors, 34-yearold Karen Torres, a mother of two, said everyone can count on her for whatever resistance plans they come up with. She said she simply
can’t upend the life she just started with her husband two years ago.
“I’m in shock,” Torres said. “We have a contract for 30 years. What happens with that? I guess it’s going to end at whatever time they want. We don’t have many options, we have a mortgage to pay. We have two kids. We won’t be able to live in this area anymore.”
Torres said she lived in a garage in East Palo Alto with her husband and kids before moving to Bayshore Villa. For them, the community was a step up: They owned their home and could raise their children in a safe environment. But most important for Torres, she could stay in a community she’s known her whole life.
“Now what?” Torres asked. “We might have to go back to renting. We’re definitely going to have to go to the Central Valley, but my home won’t be worth as much there. This is going to be so hard.”