Mobile home parks may get rent control
Council agrees that the issue should be a top priority as appointments for rent board loom
MOUNTAIN VIEW >> Rents in the city’s mobile home parks could soon go under rent control after the City Council signaled its support for expediting a new law, a move that would affect the six mobile home parks where its more than 1,100 residents have long complained about burdensome rent increases.
During a recent goals-setting meeting, the council agreed that rent control should be extended to mobile homes. The council’s decision could end a lengthy battle between renters and mobile home park owners over acceptable rent increases in the Bay Area’s expensive rental market.
A majority of council members agreed to opt for a “clean ordinance” on mobile home rent control that would imitate the city’s existing rent stabilization measures for apartments, ut others preferred a system that would exempt “good landlords” that set up a “model lease” or “accord” with their residents.
The community rent stabilization law passed in 2016 after tenants across the city cried out against rent increases of between 7% and 12% as the city’s housing market boomed. Writers of the bill had hoped that mobile homes would be included in rent control, but for the past three years court battles and rental housing committee debates have concluded they are exempt.
During a meeting last week on city priorities over the next several years, city council members agreed that rent control should be extended to mobile homes and that it should happen in the coming months after discussions that could begin in August.
If the council moves forward with a rent control law, the
rental housing committee will have control over administering it. The committee has historically been much more conservative in interpreting the city’s rent control law — voting on two occasions to not include mobile homes — after the council appointed rent control skeptics to the board.
But with a much more progressive council this go-around, the rent board could see significant ideological changes with the right appointments. On Tuesday, the council is set to interview seven applicants for three open positions on the board.
Still, two conservative holdovers from the last council — Lisa Matichak and Margaret Abe-Koga — have maintained that moving forward with a rent control ordinance for mobile homes without having options for “good landlords” would be a bad idea.
Matichak said last week that though she’s expressed support for mobile home rent control, it should include the option to exempt “responsible owners” of parks where residents “don’t have concerns about rent.”
“We have had some residents of mobile home parks saying we don’t need rent control because we have a good park owner,” Matichak said. “We should give options for a model lease or accord. If the owner doesn’t agree then they are subject to the rent control.”
Matichak’s comments mirrored those she made in January 2020 when she proposed a similar alternative and said a mix between rent control and specialized lease agreements could work since only applying rent control could impact park owners that are already being fair to residents. Back then, a majority of the council agreed with Matichak.
But councilwoman Sally Lieber — who has long been an advocate for mobile home residents and was elected to the council in November — disagreed with Matichak’s plans, saying that she isn’t “looking to set up disparate treatment for lesser protections for people in mobile homes.”
“Can (apartment) landlords decide to opt out of rent control via an accord?” Lieber said. “If landlords can’t opt out of rent control in apartments, it’s clear it’s not something the mobile home community would want. It’s not my wish to change the goal posts now.”
Lieber and other council members also questioned the idea that mobile home residents would want to make personal contracts with their park owners. Lieber said she’s received several messages from mobile home residents who say they don’t want accords or model leases.
“They want a clean rent control,” she said.
Mountain View Mobile Home Alliance administrator and Santiago Villa Mobile Home Park resident Bee Hanson said she doesn’t know anyone who would opt for that over rent control.
Hanson and the organization she works with — which represents over 400 residents at all six of the city’s mobile home parks — have been working over the past two years with city staff to craft an ordinance that would be palatable but not leave anyone out.
She called model leases and accords “a very bad idea” because it creates “personal contracts with owners that segment the community so that individuals become powerless because they’re stuck with this contract even if the park gets sold.”
Over the past year, two parks have proposed voluntary rent increases that are similar to rent control, including Santiago Villa, Hanson said. But Hanson doesn’t believe that’s the best way forward and will continue to advocate for city-administered rent control across all six parks.
“These voluntary increases are very unstable for people to count on because we know from past experiences that that’s not a stable change for us,” Hanson said. “Anyone who accepts those model leases is taking a huge risk.”
For people who live at mobile home parks, a large part of whom are senior citizens on fixed income and some of the Bay Area’s poorest families, the rent increases that they have had to deal with over the years have built up more pressure on their finances, Hanson said.
She doesn’t understand why the city hasn’t stabilized rents for them, and she also isn’t convinced that people will be able to continue paying even with rent control.
“Why would you not help them and help people who are paying for expensive apartments instead?” Hanson said. “A lot of people in the park can’t afford even the 2% or 3% adjustment they would see from rent control. But we’re encouraged that the new council is very much in tune with what we’re trying to do for our residents.”