(SACRAMENTO, CA) The Senate Committee on Transportation and Housing approved a bill by Assemblymember Noreen Evans (D-Santa Rosa), Chair of the Assembly Democratic Caucus, to protect seniors and working families now living in mobile home parks by regulating the conversion of mobile home parks from rentals to resident ownership.

AB 1542 passed with a vote of 6-2.  It goes to the Senate Appropriations Committee for further review.

“Without this bill, many seniors and working families face losing their homes,” said Evans.  “The Senators didn’t need to take my word for it.  Mobile home residents chartered a bus from Sonoma County to deliver the message.”

AB 1542 closes a loophole in current law allowing mobile home park owners to subdivide and convert mobile home parks into condominiums, to avoid local rent control, and to potentially make huge profits in the process.  The bill provides local governments in jurisdictions with a local rent control ordinance the opportunity to review and approve applications to convert mobile home parks.

There are at least 40 pending mobile home park conversions in varying locations across California, including the cities of Santa Rosa, Rohnert Park, Hayward, Vallejo, Buellton, Carson, Ojai, and San Luis Obispo.  Several cities and counties have adopted moratoriums to give the State Legislature time to act on AB 1542.

“Land values are so high in many communities that ownership is prohibitively expensive for people living on fixed incomes,” added Evans.  “Mobile homes provide affordable housing to people priced out of home ownership.  Seniors and working families now live in fear that they will lose their homes because developers and land speculators want to turn their homes into condominiums.”

Current law allows a mobile home park to be subdivided into residential ownership.  But there are no safeguards for local governments to ensure that conversions serve the public interest.  If one parcel in a mobile home park is sold, the phase-out of rent control begins for the remaining park residents except for low-income tenants.  After 4 years spaces not rented to low-income tenants at the time of conversion can be rented at market rate.  This means that a space rented for $600/month today could cost $1,000 to $1,500 in just a few years.

“This bill enables local governments to assess the full community impact of a conversion project and act accordingly,” added Evans.  “Communities need to know the number of displaced residents and how much affordable housing will be lost if a conversion project is approved by their local officials.”

AB 1542 is sponsored by the City of Santa Rosa and the County of Sonoma.  It is supported by the League of California Cities, the California State Association of Counties, the Sonoma Housing Advocacy Group, the Golden State Manufactured-Home Owners League, the California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation, and the State Building and Construction Trades Council of California.  Further information is available at http://www.leginfo.ca.gov.