Mobile Home Rent Measure Is Assailed : Housing: Residents group rolls out campaign to oppose initiative that would replace state rent control laws with assistance for needy.

Mobile home park residents are kicking off a publicity campaign this weekend to defeat a ballot initiative that they say will force thousands of them, mostly senior citizens, out of their homes if it is passed.

“It is the biggest fraud to come down the pipeline in a long time,” said Steve Hopcraft, spokesman for Golden State Mobile Home Owners League, about a rent control initiative that will appear on the California ballot in 1996.

If passed, the measure that was circulated as the “Mobilehome Fairness and Rental Assistance Act” would repeal rent control laws governing California’s mobile home parks and replace them with a fund that would provide 10% rent reductions to the neediest 10% in each mobile home park. The money would come from park owners.

The position of Golden State Mobile Home Owners League, a 55,000-member senior citizens group, is that the initiative is deceptive. Though it is called a rental assistance initiative, it puts the quality of life of thousands of mobile home dwellers across the state in jeopardy, Hopcraft said.

“It will lead to thousands of evictions,” Hopcraft said. “These are mostly people who live on a fixed income and won’t be able to afford their rents if they are increased.”

James Vaughn, campaign manager of Californians for Mobilehome Fairness, the group that put the initiative on the ballot, said the accusations are off base. “Even if the initiative is passed, you won’t lose your rent control unless you move,” he said.