Bellflower : Rent Control Measure

The City Council will decide at its Jan. 11 meeting whether to place a mobile home rent control measure on the April 12 ballot.

After two hours of discussion and public testimony Monday night, the council directed city staff to prepare the papers that must be filed by Jan. 15 if the measure is to go to a citywide vote.

The measure would restrict rent increases to 75% of the rise in the consumer price index. Yearly rent increases would be held to between 3% and 5%. A council-appointed rent review commission--made up of two mobile home owners, two park owners and someone who is neither--would handle disputes over increases that exceed those guidelines.

Members of the Bellflower Mobile Home Action Committee, which represents residents of the city’s 45 mobile home parks, expressed disappointment. Earlier this month the group submitted its own proposal to the city, but council members have not reviewed it.

The city’s proposal “has so many loopholes you could get a Mack truck through it,” said Bell Silva, a spokeswoman for the committee. “Ours has more teeth.”

Silva said the committee will begin circulating petitions Friday to place its measure on the ballot for a special June election.

“I am not willing to wait on this,” Silva said. “The council has been stalling long enough.”