San Jose mobile home residents say the city blindsided them by proposing changes that will increase rents.
The Housing Department is considering an update to its mobile home rent policy that would include a one-time rent increase up to 10% whenever a mobile home is sold, among other changes. Under the existing policy, property owners are allowed a 3% rent increase on each parcel every year. They can’t raise rents more than 7% without city approval, and can’t increase rent to market rate prices except when the property is abandoned, the resident is evicted or when a sale falls through.
Residents said the city conducted no outreach to inform them of the proposed change before placing it on the Nov. 13 meeting agenda for the San Jose Housing and Community Development Commission.
“It was totally blindsiding us, because the proposed changes that they are trying to make would affect the mobile home community greatly,” Commissioner Daniel Finn, who lives in a mobile home, told San José Spotlight.
Mobile homes, or manufactured homes, are typically owned by the person residing in them — though they don’t own the land it sits on. Homeowners pay mobile park owners monthly to rent the plot of land, and park owners maintain everything outside the home, including gas and water pipes.
The city has more than 10,000 mobile home spaces across 58 mobile home parks that fall under the rent policy, according to city data. They are considered one of the city’s last affordable housing options. At San Jose Verde Mobile Home Park, space rent varies from $800 to $1,650 a month.
Finn said the last time the city tried to propose a change to the policy in 2017, there was robust community discussion between the city, property owners and mobile home owners — and the proposed change failed.
He said himself and others raised concerns about the latest proposed change before the Nov. 13 commission meeting. That prompted the city to cancel the meeting and postpone the change going to the San Jose City Council for approval until Jan. 27. It was originally set for a Dec. 2 vote.
The San Jose Housing Department held its first online community engagement meeting on the proposed rent change Nov. 20. Other proposed changes include modernizing the administration process and requiring property owners to report rent and tenant changes.
At the community meeting, Housing Director Erik Soliván said the changes are necessary to update a decades-old policy and help shore up the cost of capital improvements. The housing department is continuing to look at how it can strengthen tenant protections while balancing the need for continuous capital improvements, he said.
“Our mobile home park owners throughout the city have a lot of maintenance that’s needed, as well as the continuing rises in utility costs, infrastructure costs and construction costs,” Soliván said at the meeting. “This 10% (increase) allows for… additional revenue to invest in continuing capital costs, while also mitigating some of the continuing rent increases across the site.”
The city plans to hold two more community meetings before the public hearing in January.
Housing and Community Development Commission Chair Ryan Jasinsky, who represents mobile home park owners, did not respond to requests for comment.
Martha O’Connell, regional manager for Golden State Manufactured- Home Owners League and mobile home resident, said she was disappointed by the online community meeting, which did not allow participants to speak freely about their concerns.
“These are the most significant changes to the San Jose rent control in its history,” O’Connell told San José Spotlight. “Mobile homes are supposed to be the last bastion of affordable housing, and to take away vacancy control defeats keeping them affordable.”
O’Connell is worried about low-income families and older adults on Social Security who could be priced out of a mobile home. In order to qualify to purchase a home, buyers must make at least three times the cost of the housing expense — including the space rent. She said she knows some people who are renting for $2,000 a month at the mobile home park where she lives, Colonial Mobile Manor.
“By raising the rent, it’s going to make it a lot harder for people to even be able to afford to buy these homes,” she said.
Contact Joyce Chu at [email protected] or @joyce_speaks on X.