Rent control for mobile-home parks could become a hot-button issue
in coming months as City Council members field complaints from park
residents about rising costs.
More than 200 mobile-home residents
clogged Tuesday's City Council meeting, filling the council chambers
and the City Hall lobby for a report about mobile parks in the city.
Rent
prices are a big concern because many mobile-home residents are older
and on fixed retirement incomes, said Jim Harbottle, a former City
Council member now serving as a consultant. While most people who live
in mobile homes own the structure, they rent their space from the
mobile park owners.
"Because
of the nonmobility of mobile homes, park residents are not in a
position to resist the sometimes substantial rent increases that owners
seek to implement," Harbottle said.
Visalia has tried in the past
to keep rents in check. Now on the books is a "master lease" that
participating parks are supposed to offer to residents to provide
rent-rate stability. But not all parks participate, Harbottle said, and
some others look for ways to get around its provisions and raise rents.
Harbottle
said the council may want to consider a rent-control ordinance to
replace the master lease once that program expires in May 2010.
Jim
Burr, a mobile-home resident and chairman of the Visalia Mobile Home
Task Force, said rent controls may be needed to keep rents affordable.
Burr
said some residents have faced rent increases as high as 7% per year.
"That's just too much," he said. "We're on a trend that we can't afford
here in the second-poorest county in California."
Dave Evans of
the Western Manufactured Housing Communities Association cautioned
against risking costly lawsuits with a rent-control ordinance.
Such ordinances, Evans said, are "very costly and very litigious" and pit park owners against their customers.
No
decision came Tuesday, but the council asked its staff to find out what
it will cost to study mobile home park rents and determine whether rent
controls are needed.
Problems with maintenance of grounds and
vacant mobile homes in some parks also worry council members. Mayor
Jesus Gamboa and others asked about how the city can take over health
and safety oversight of mobile parks from the state.
Such a move would enable the city to enforce its own code-enforcement laws and good-neighbor policies in mobile parks.
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