No on Mobile Home Rent Measure : Increases under Prop. 199 would hurt many, especially the aged
The so-called Mobile Home Fairness and Rental Assistance Act, Proposition 199 on the March 26 primary ballot, is misleading and unfair. The Times urges a no vote to protect vulnerable mobile home owners, especially senior citizens who tend to live on fixed incomes and desperately need this affordable housing in high-rent regions like Southern California and Northern California.
If approved, the ballot measure will repeal local rent control for mobile home parks. When that protection was lost in Los Angeles County, some rents rose between $100 and $300 or more per month. A Los Angeles municipal ordinance protects mobile home dwellers who live within city limits from such drastic increases; the increases that they face are based on the consumer price index, a connection that is reasonable and fair.
Many of the state’s 500,000 mobile home dwellers own their trailers but they don’t own the land beneath their homes. So they pay rent for the land, as other tenants pay rent for an apartment. Sharp increases in trailer pad rents would punish mobile home owners who cannot afford any other form of homeownership. Relocating to a new park can cost upward of $10,000.
Supporters of the ballot initiative, including the mobile home park owners for whom it was written, argue that one provision would require owners to provide a 10% discount for “very low-income” mobile home dwellers. There is some merit in that argument as long as rents start low and rise slowly. But if rents rise sharply, for example from $400 to $800, that discount wouldn’t mean much to a widow living on a $700 Social Security check.
Backers of the initiative argue that rent control can discourage landlords from improving existing properties. Agreed, that is often true for owners of apartment buildings in undesirable neighborhoods. But this argument rarely applies to most mobile home parks because maintaining land is generally much cheaper than maintaining aging apartments.
In general, mobile home parks are considered desirable affordable housing. This is an issue where local control is preferable because members of a city council have a better sense of the market. The Los Angeles City Council and the city’s Affordable Housing Commission oppose this initiative, and with good reason. Repealing local rent control on mobile home parks would do more harm than good.
Proposition 199 ought to be called the Anti-Affordable Housing Initiative. The Times recommends a no vote.
