SANTA PAULA : Rent Control Sought for Trailer Parks

A group of Santa Paula mobile home park tenants has again submitted a petition seeking to place an initiative on the ballot that would bar rent increases when a mobile home changes hands.

According to officials of the United Mobilehome Owners Assn. of Santa Paula, the 25% rent hike that is now allowed has nearly brought coach sales to a halt and made mobile home living too expensive.

“Rents have simply gone sky-high,” said association President Helen Currier. “If you don’t put a cap on it, people won’t move in.”

In January, the association submitted an identical petition that failed to qualify because the full text of the proposed initiative did not accompany each petition page, MacDonald said.

“We learned everything from that first try,” Currier said. “We think it also made city residents much more aware of the problem.”

Under terms of the amendment that the association has proposed, owners of the city’s seven mobile home parks would only be entitled to a onetime $25 fee for administrative costs when a mobile home changes hands.

Under terms of the city’s Mobile Home Park Rent Stabilization Ordinance, park owners may charge up to a 25% increase in ground rent to a new mobile home owner when a coach is sold.

The initiative would also restrict the type of improvements that a park owner could make to qualify for a cost-recovering rent increase.

The association’s initiative does not seek to change sections of the existing rent control ordinance that spell out the amount of annual rent increases that park owners may seek. Under most circumstances, park owners may charge an increase that equals three-fourths of the year’s rise in the Consumer Price Index.

The association submitted petitions Thursday with about 1,800 signatures, Currier said. Under the city’s municipal code, a petition must have a minimum of 1,000 valid signatures to qualify for the November ballot, City Clerk Stacey B. MacDonald said.