San Gabriel Valley : 2 Cities Oppose Move to Outlaw Rent Caps
As efforts to weaken rent control laws gain support statewide, they could hit a roadblock in the San Gabriel Valley, home to five dozen mobile home parks.
La Verne and Azusa already have passed resolutions opposing a March, 1996, statewide initiative that would prevent local governments from putting caps on rents.
“This will allow park owners to hike the rents,” said Nancy Young, who lives with her husband, Bob, in La Verne’s Fountains Mobile Home Park. “Many who live in the parks are seniors on fixed incomes who have invested in the amenities around their home. We have a koi carp pond.”
The Youngs and other residents of La Verne’s eight mobile home parks persuaded their City Council to join the fight. If the initiative passes, current tenants would not see their rents raised, but new tenants could be charged market rates.
Rent control opponents counter that the state measure could reduce some rents because it would require park owners to offer a subsidy of 10% to residents.
Rent control “has had a chilling effect on park owners. . . . Only one new park has been built in the ‘90s,” said Denis Wolcott, spokesman for Los Angeles-based Mobile Home Fairness, a group of mobile park owners and some tenants.
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