Board Backs Revision in Mobile-Home Rules

Supervisors Tuesday revised the county’s mobile-home rental ordinance to give prospective tenants the same kind of rent-control protection available to existing residents.

Supervisors are scheduled to give final approval to the ordinance Jan. 23.

The law will prohibit a mobile-home park owner from requiring would-be residents to lease a space for more than a year. Under state law, residents do not qualify for rent control if such a long-term lease is signed.

The county ordinance bars park owners from requiring existing residents to sign leases of more than a year but does not extend the same protection to prospective tenants. The county had believed state law covered those people, but it is unclear whether it does, officials said.

“The intent is [to ensure that] park owners cannot take advantage of folks who need shelter by misrepresenting what a lease can be,” said County Supervisor Susan Lacey, the ordinance revision’s prime proponent. “We’re in this to protect a few folks from greedy people.”

Lacey said she knows of at least one instance in the county where a park demanded that a long-term lease be signed, but she declined to give specifics.

David Evans of the Western Mobilehome Parkowners Assn., which represents 17 of the county’s 24 parks, said the move would hurt his members.

“There’s a big difference between an existing resident and a prospective tenant,” he said. “The park owners are paying for the affordable housing in this town. The county’s not paying for it.”