Hearing on Mobile Home Measure Set

County supervisors will hold a public hearing Tuesday on a measure that would prohibit mobile home park owners from requiring new residents to sign long-term leases.

Under state law, mobile home residents cannot qualify for rent control if they have signed a lease longer than 12 months. The county’s Mobile Home Rent Control Ordinance now prevents trailer park owners from requiring existing residents to sign such leases, but provides no such protection for new residents.

Without a change in the ordinance, county officials say park owners could coerce new residents into long-term leases as a way to remove them from the protection of rent control.

“Unscrupulous landlords have forced incoming purchasers of in-place mobile homes to sign long-term leases,” said Steve Offerman, an assistant to Supervisor Susan Lacey, who proposed the new legislation. “It has been used as a surreptitious way of taking their parks and tenants out from the protection of local rent control ordinances.” The hearing is set for 1:30 p.m. in the board chambers at the County Government Center.

There are more than 20 mobile home parks in the unincorporated areas of the county. Mobile home park residents generally own their coaches but rent the space on which their trailers sit. Rent control, set according to the consumer price index for the Los Angeles area, ensures that any annual increase cannot fall below 3% or top 7%.