Join SV@Home for a conversation about Mountain View and Sunnyvale’s plan to provide rent stabilization to their mobilehome residents.
Mobilehomes are generally considered a source of naturally affordable housing. Mobilehome park residents often own their home, renting the land underneath from the park operator. As with any rental property, mobile home owners are vulnerable to high spikes in rent year over year.
After years of advocacy by mobilehome residents in Sunnyvale and Mountain View, these cities took action to provide rent stabilization to their mobilehome tenants. They are joined by the other many cities in Santa Clara County already providing mobilehome rent stabilization (San Jose, Gilroy, Milpitas, Morgan Hill and Los Gatos).
On March 16, 2021, the Council directed City staff to develop a draft Ordinance that would provide the same base protections to mobile home residents as the Community Stabilization and Fair Rent Act (Mountain View’s rent stabilization law commonly known as the “CSFRA”) and that would empower the Rental Housing Committee to administer the Ordinance. The city hosted two recorded stakeholder meetings (park owners and park residents) to provide feedback on the initial framework. The Mountain View City Council will consider the Mobilehome Rent Stabilization Ordinance at the September 14 meeting.
The Sunnyvale City Council’s action on July 3 was a compromise between mobilehome residents and mobilehome park owners, who negotiated a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) that caps annual rent increases, the total amount that rent can be increased when a current tenant moves out, and the amount that the park owners can charge residents for park-wide improvements. The Council also instructed city staff to begin developing a Rent Stabilization Ordinance (RSO) that would hold parks owners accountable in case they do not sign on to the new MOU. The next steps are to finalize the MOU and get both park owners and residents to sign it.
Come learn more about how these two cities approach mobilehome rent stabilization, and share your thoughts.
Featured Speaker:
Bruce Stanton, Golden State Manufactured-Homeowners League Corporate Counsel
Emily Ann Ramos, Preservation and Protection Associate, SV@Home
The HAC is a monthly, informal brownbag discussion convening Housers to engage on hot housing topics. Every month, we select a topic or current event, bring in an expert to give a brief presentation, and then open up the discussion to ask questions, float new ideas, and identify potential areas for shared action.