Background
About 500,000 California households live in mobilehomes. Mobilehomes differ from traditional single-family homes in that they are built in factories and then moved to the place where the household wishes to live.
Most mobilehome owners have placed their homes on land that is rented from a mobilehome park owner. Once placed in a park, mobilehomes are difficult and expensive to move. As a result, when mobilehome owners wish to leave a park, they typically sell their home to someone else, rather than move the mobilehome.
Local Rent Control Laws.
About 100 cities and counties have laws restricting the amount of rent mobilehome park owners may charge people who live in their park. These laws typically limit rent increases
to rates equal to--or less than--inflation. Some communities, however, allow additional rent increases when a mobilehome is sold, transferred, or sublet. Local rent control laws apply to nearly 150,000 mobilehomes in California.
Proposal
This measure phases out mobilehome rent control laws and prohibits local government from enacting new mobilehome rent control laws. The measure also requires mobilehome park owners to provide rent discounts to very-low income mobilehome owners.
Rent Control. The measure makes two major changes to existing local mobilehome rent control laws. First, the measure would eliminate--over time--all existing rent restrictions on mobilehomes. Specifically, rent restrictions on a mobilehome park space would be eliminated when a mobilehome owner sells, transfers, or sublets the home. It would take many years before all spaces in a park were exempt from rent control.
Second, the measure modifies the laws controlling rents on mobilehomes that remain subject to rent control. Specifically, these laws could not restrict annual rent increases to below the rate of inflation. This provision would allow park owners to increase rents at rates slightly higher than allowed under existing laws.
The measure also:
Rent Discounts. The measure requires mobilehome park owners to provide 10 percent rent discounts to mobilehome owners with ``very-low'' income. The level of income considered ``very-low'' is defined by state law and varies by county. For example, two people with incomes of less than $13,850 a year in Fresno County are considered to have ``very-low'' income, whereas in Los Angeles County, the comparable amount is about $20,500. Park owners would have to provide these discounts for up to 10 percent of the spaces in the park. (Mobilehome park spaces still subject to rent control, however, would count toward the 10 percent requirement.) Park owners could end a rent discount for various reasons, such as if the mobilehome owner is six days late with a rent payment or violates park rules. In these cases, a mobilehome owner could reapply for assistance in one year.
Fiscal Effect
In the near term, local agencies with rent control laws would experience increased costs to administer the phase-out of rent control. In some communities, these increased costs would be offset by decreased costs to oversee mobilehome park rent increases. Any short-term net costs--or savings--would vary by community, but are not likely to be significant.
In the long term, after all mobilehome park spaces were exempt from rent control, local agency costs to administer rent control laws would be eliminated. The extent of these local agency savings statewide probably would total at least several million dollars annually.