· The
subject of rent is the first official FAQ because it generated the most phone
calls to the Senate Select Committee for Manufactured Homes. I explained
to residents that they had to appeal to their city council or county board of
supervisors to enact rent control. Many
residents called me back and said, “I called my councilmember’s office asking
for rent control and they said I need to call the State.” Local staff either did not know how rent
control laws worked, or they simply didn’t want to tell the truth, which is
“This city (or county) does not want rent control here. Period.
End of discussion.” Rent control falls
under the definition of “local control”.
This means that cities and counties do not want the State taking away
their right to run their cities their own way.
Most local jurisdictions retain a fulltime lobbyist in Sacramento to
protect their exclusive rights of governance.
· “Why
can’t the Legislature pass a MHP rent control law?” This has been tried at different times with
no success. All bills must go through a
hearing and review process. It is during
this process that some bills die on the battlefield of compromise. If a MHP rent control bill has any life left
in it by the time it reaches the Governor’s Desk, it has been so heavily
amended that it is virtually useless.
This is why it is strategic to develop a rent control ordinance at the
local level.
· “Why
do some cities have MHP rent control ordinances, but mine doesn’t?” These ordinances were enacted because a core group
of MHP residents worked consistently and patiently for years negotiating with
their local elected officials. Getting
any kind of rent control ordinance is pushing against the tide. A few local jurisdictions have strong MHP
rent control ordinances, some have weak ones.
Most local governments have none at all.
In a nutshell: Rent control has a different impact on
different groups. For space-renters, it
keeps housing costs in line with their other monthly expenses. For park managers, it keeps the tenant
population steady, limits move-ins and move-outs, and even keeps evictions at a
minimum. For property owners, rent
control limits their business income and also restricts them from saving enough
money for costly infrastructure upgrades.
For cities and counties, rent control ordinances can drive
investors away, which makes it hard for local jurisdictions to raise money from
property taxes, construction permit fees, and sales taxes.
· Residents
in Orange County seemed to be impacted the most by unregulated rent
increases. A frantic man called me one
day. He said, “I just got a notice
that my rent is increasing by $800. How
can they do this to us?” He
explained that he and his wife could not afford the increase along with food
and medications. And even if they sold
their mobilehome, they couldn’t afford apartment rents either. There was nothing I could do other than
explain how to apply for housing assistance and food subsidies. None of my advice helped. He broke down in tears anyway. Then he hung up because he couldn’t talk
anymore. I never heard from him again. To this day, I feel awful about that.
· One
elderly woman called me numerous times trying to figure out a way to get out of
the park she and her husband were living in before the rising rents caused them
to be homeless. “We need to get out
of this park because the rent is getting too much for us. How do we do this?” She took my advice and applied for a spot on
the county’s low-income senior housing list.
When I didn’t hear from this positive, tenacious lady again, I assumed
she and her husband moved to better housing.
This is how I explained to residents how this important process
works: A senior who is low income contacts
their county housing authority and asks to be put on the waiting list. The definition of “low income” is different
in every county. Almost all counties
have a housing authority agency, and the popular counties’ waiting lists are
very long. At one time, I heard that Orange
County is so impacted that their list only opens every 5 years, and is 10 years
long. Keep in mind that baby boomers are
making that waiting list longer every day.
I tell seniors, “Get your name on the list now even if you don’t think
you’ll need it. You might need it by the
time they call your name.”
· A
recently retired woman in Los Angeles county called me and said she was trapped
in a park where the rents were going up regularly and she wouldn’t be able to
stay there. She said, “I guess I’ll
have to move. What do I do?” I advised her to apply for a Section 8
housing voucher through the local housing authority agency. I cautioned her that landlords are not
required to take Section 8, and in Los Angeles, the waiting list to get into
Section 8 housing was very long. She
said her income was so low that she won’t be able to afford to stay in
L.A. I explained that since Section 8 is
a federal program, this housing voucher is good anywhere in the U.S.
· A
MHP resident from Southern California called me to report that as the rents
were spiking in his park, maintenance and order were disappearing. The park was getting dirty, trash was only
being picked up periodically, and trailers were being brought in and squeezed onto
random open spaces. “I don’t feel
safe in this park anymore. What do I
do?” I told him that it appeared
that his park was on a serious downslide, and that an upswing, if it came at
all, could be years away. I told him I
couldn’t tell him what to do, but that if I was in his position, I would
prepare to sell and move out before the park gets so unattractive and the rents
are so high that no one would want to buy my home. Before he hung up, he shared one more bleak
observation: The park was getting so
unaffordable that the tenants in the mobilehome next door to him were stripping
the metal siding off their unit and selling it for scrap to make the rent
payments.
· Rents
have been on a wild streak for years in California but an increase is still
relative, depending on where a person lives.
A woman called me from a rural eastern county where she and her
neighbors were furious over the newest rent increase. She said, “We just got another rent
increase notice. They are raising our
rent five dollars again! How can they do
this?” I told her that rent is going
up everywhere because all of California is prime real estate. And tenants in coastal counties (I call that
area “The Riviera”) are being hit harder than the rest. I explained that just that morning I had
heard from an angry MHP resident in Orange County who said that his rent went
up five hundred dollars. She didn’t feel
so bad anymore knowing what others were going through. The man with the $500 increase didn’t know
it, but he was an important example for residents from rural areas. The rent increases in the country may be
difficult, but they are not nearly as stiff as rent increases in the city.
---Stephanie Reid, formerly on staff with the Senate Select Committee for Manufactured Homes and Communities
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