Expansion of Rent Controls to Go on San Juan Ballot

The City Council voted 5 to 0 Tuesday night to hold an election on extending rent control to recently vacated mobile home park spaces.

Because of the potential cost of up to $30,000 for the election, the council delayed setting a date and appealed to the park tenants to help pay expenses. The council agreed to set an election date no later than July 1.

Representatives of the city’s estimated 3,000 mobile home park tenants claim that city voters will support them and extend the rent controls in five of the city’s seven mobile home parks.

Al Simmons, a spokesman for the mobile home residents, and other tenants have fought to protect rent controls since the city first adopted a rent control law for mobile home parks in 1978. That law, the only one of its kind in the county, protects park residents from steep rent increases.

Under its provisions, park owners can only raise space rents once a year and only through a specially devised formula.