At last! Democracy prevails! Residents of Vineyard Valley as well
as those registered in the City of St. Helena will be allowed to
vote on their preference for or against the Rent Stabilization
Ordinance recently passed by the city council. The ordinance
applies only to Vineyard Valley.
What happened to all that talk about rent control?
Less than four months after an initiative to allow
cities to expand rent control failed overwhelmingly at the ballot
box, and less than four months after then-incoming Gov. Gavin
Newsom talked about brokering a compromise between tenant and
landlord groups, no new legislation from lawmakers or specific
proposals from the Newsom administration have been introduced to
cap how much rents can rise.
SANTA CRUZ — New legislation proposed by a Monterey Bay state
assemblyman would strengthen protections for mobile home
residents facing displacement, in the name of California’s
affordable housing goals.
The issue of rent stabilization at Vineyard Valley Mobile Home
Park could be decided by St. Helena voters as early as June.
The City Council directed staff Tuesday to come back with a
resolution calling a special election at the earliest possible
date, which staff said would be June 4.
California might be about to undermine the best argument it has
to attract new business and jobs. A ballot initiative has
qualified to eliminate the protections against property tax
increases guaranteed by Proposition 13, to the extent applied to
business property. The importance of Proposition 13 to job growth
in our state has to be better understood: at present, our state’s
political leaders appear primed to support this change.
WATSONVILLE — The city of Watsonville is moving forward with new
zoning protections for its mobile and manufactured homes, the
latest step in an ongoing effort to ensure an adequate supply of
affordable housing for low-income residents.
Under the new rules, each of Watsonville’s nine mobile home parks
would be protected from development unless a special use permit
is granted for a narrow range of other high-priority land uses,
such as churches, cemeteries, child care centers and schools.
Oceanside plans to better regulate its short-term vacation
rentals by hiring a full-time enforcement officer, requiring
licenses and annual fees, and streamlining the tax collection
process.
The proposal outlined by first-term Councilman Chris Rodriguez
got the City Council’s unanimous approval Wednesday, along with
the stipulation that details of the program be worked out by city
staffers and ready for the council’s consideration in 120 days.
CHICO, Calif. — The Paradise Town Council met in the Chico City
Council chambers on Wednesday night, to discuss Paradise’s
post-Camp Fire housing shortage.
FEMA may be putting trailers on private property in Paradise, to
temporarily solve the housing crisis. Manufactured homes on
private parcels already make up 14-percent of single family
residences, in Paradise.
But, what FEMA is proposing is slightly different.
It’s been almost 41 years since Proposition 13 passed in 1978,
lowering property taxes for every home, apartment building,
commercial structure, farm and parking lot in California.
Through almost all that time, the initiative sponsored by
longtime anti-tax gadflies Howard Jarvis and Paul Gann remained a
sacred cow, a third rail that election officials and candidates
of every stripe feared to touch for fear of political
electrocution.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom says conversations are underway on
rent stabilization, after voters rejected a rent control ballot
measure last fall.
Newsom spoke Tuesday in San Jose at a roundtable discussion on
California’s housing crisis, saying the state is speaking with
housing industry groups about possible next steps following
the defeat of Proposition 10 in November.
SANTA CRUZ — The Santa Cruz City Council took the first step
toward reviving recently lapsed landlord eviction limits Tuesday,
putting in place temporary rules for up to a year in a 4-3 vote
just before midnight.
If the council gives final approval to the interim ordinance with
a second vote at a coming meeting, landlords once again will need
to ensure they have “just cause” for their tenant evictions.
Acceptable eviction reasons range from failure to pay rent to
nuisance violations.
After years of bitter back-and-forth with resistant neighbors,
the newly elected San Jose City Council pushed ahead with a
project to house formerly homeless people southeast of Willow
Glen in converted shipping containers.
The council approved a rezoning request that will allow the
containers to be placed and turned into 60 permanent supportive
housing units on Evans Lane near Canoas Gardens Ave.
The price tag? Some $600,000 per unit, or $2,500 per square foot,
according to Rachel VanderVeen, a deputy director in the city’s
Housing Department.
Opponents of rent stabilization at Vineyard Valley Mobile Home
Park have gathered enough signatures to force the City Council to
repeal the new ordinance or put it on the ballot.
Opponents needed to collect 344 valid signatures, equivalent to
10 percent of St. Helena’s registered voters. They submitted 579
signatures, and of the 364 checked by the Napa County Election
Division, 345 were confirmed to be valid.
Over strong objections from the owners of Vineyard Valley Mobile
Home Park, the St. Helena City Council voted 3-2 Tuesday in favor
of an ordinance that would cap rent increases for some of the
park’s residents.
Councilmembers Paul Dohring, Geoff Ellsworth and Mary Koberstein
voted for the new rent stabilization ordinance, with Mayor Alan
Galbraith and Councilmember Peter White voting against it. The
ordinance will undergo a few modifications before coming back to
the council for final adoption.
Once thought of as a sacred cow, Proposition 13, the tax revolt
measure passed in 1978, is now under attack. Schools and
Communities First, a coalition of nearly 300 groups and leaders,
has qualified an initiative for the Nov. 2020 ballot that would
lift caps on property taxes for commercial and industrial
properties.
The coalition says that if the initiative is approved, it will
reclaim more than $11 billion a year for K-12 schools, community
college, cities, counties and special districts that support
everything from parks to libraries.
A hard-fought and controversial campaign to expand rent control
in California, home to some of the priciest housing markets in
the nation, was defeated Tuesday night.
Proposition 10, the measure to broaden rent control’s reach by
repealing a state law restricting its use, trailed throughout the
night as it was soundly rejected by the state’s voters.
For some of California’s largest real estate investors, the fight
over an initiative to expand rent control goes beyond the state’s
borders. They’ve opened their wallets to prove it.
Eight of California’s top owners of apartment buildings and their
related business entities have donated nearly half of the $74
million raised to defeat Proposition 10, according to a Los
Angeles Times analysis of state campaign finance data.
Most economists argue that rent control will lead to a reduction
in the quality and quantity of housing available. Yet frustration
over rising rents seems to be boiling over in California and both
sides promote research that they say proves their point.
The Union-Tribune is answering the most common questions about
Prop 10 and what it means.
Sacramento’s rent-control wars hit a boil this week. And became
incredibly convoluted as well.
A petition drive to stifle rent hikes by landlords got a boost at
City Hall, albeit from a not entirely supportive City Council.
The same day, a competing proposal, kinder to landlords, written
by three council members, saw its first formal hearing. And a
business group vowed a lawsuit to kill the petition effort.
By: DONALD WITTMAN and JESSE CUNHAOctober 19, 2018
Soaring rents are a serious problem. Many Californians are paying
much more rent than in the past or cannot afford to live where
they’d like to. Unfortunately, Proposition 10’s solution —
allowing for more rent control — does not fix this problem for
the community as a whole. Instead it helps current tenants who
decide to stay in their units long term, but hurts future renters
and those who might want or need to move.
A rent-controlled apartment in the Bay Area is a coveted find
that tenants will hang onto as long as possible. So why is a
California ballot measure that would allow cities to expand rent
control not just losing here, but trailing by a wider margin than
it is statewide?
Coming to an election near you in 2020: the future of Proposition
13, California’s landmark law limiting property taxes.
Secretary of State Alex Padilla announced Monday that
an initiative to scale back the protections for
commercial and industrial properties is eligible for the November
2020 ballot. The proponents, led by a coalition of
civil rights groups and community organizations, could still
decide before then not to move forward with the measure.
Facing opposition from the owners of Vineyard Valley Mobile Home
Park and many of its residents, the St. Helena City Council is
moving ahead with a rent stabilization ordinance that would limit
rent increases in the park.
An ordinance would cap rent increases for park residents on
short-term leases of one year or less. Residents would be able to
choose between a short-term lease that would be subject to rent
stabilization or a long-term contract that would not.
California voters will decide on Nov. 6 whether government rent
controls would make housing more affordable or even more
expensive. Controlling rent hikes would help keep tenants under
shelter and off the street. At least that’s the theory.
But controls also could drive up rent prices by reducing housing
supply in several ways, it’s contended.
The main reason for California’s affordable housing shortage is
simple: too much demand and not enough supply. Prop. 10 does
nothing to address that disparity and indeed could make it worse.
For that reason and others, we urge you to vote no on Proposition
10.
In less than five weeks, California voters will decide on
Proposition 10, a ballot initiative that would allow cities and
counties across the state to expand rent control.
Supporters of the measure say it will offer relief for tenants
during a time of unprecedented housing affordability problems in
California. Opponents contend it will stymie housing construction
— the levels are already low — and further increase costs.
Here’s a rundown of some of the difficulties renters face and how
Proposition 10 would affect them and broader affordability
issues.
MHAction, a well-funded, national mobilehome resident organizing
group, has surfaced in Westminster in hopes of helping pass
Proposition 10 and to promote mobilehome park rent control
regionally. MHAction is reaching out to residents throughout the
state and paying for them to attend activist training in
Westminster. WMA and local parkowners continue to work with city
officials to address community concerns.
To read more, click on the “MHAction Letter” button to the right.
Proposition 10 is a fine example of chasing a disaster with a
catastrophe.
The disaster is the housing crisis in California. The escalation
of home prices and rents has far outpaced wage growth, helping to
give California the nation’s highest poverty rate when adjusted
for the cost of living.
The catastrophe is Prop. 10, the “Local Rent Control Initiative.”
But critics of such strict rent control, including most
economists, argue it will stymie housing development, worsening
the state’s already severe housing shortage. Some landlords, they
say, will simply sell their properties if it becomes far less
profitable to rent them — as many did in Berkeley and Santa
Monica decades ago.
A November ballot initiative that would allow cities to enact
strong rent control across California is widely unpopular, even
among renters, according to a new Public Policy Institute of
California poll.
Roughly half of likely voters — 48 percent — oppose Proposition
10, according to the poll — the first conducted on the measure.
Just 36 percent are in favor and 16 percent are undecided, the
poll found.
A fight over rent control has raged for three years in the
Silicon Valley suburb of Mountain View with no end in sight.
It began in October 2015, when Mountain View City Council members
rejected pleas from tenant activists to limit rent increases.
Tenant groups responded with a November 2016 ballot initiative to
restrict rent hikes, and council members countered by putting a
less stringent proposal before voters.
Many have long held the assumption that mobile homes don’t
increase in value — or, at the very least, they rise in value at
a much slower rate than traditional homes.
But recent data suggests the opposite is true — and that could
have major implications in the push for increased affordable
housing nationwide.
When California voters get tired of waiting for their politicians
to act, they turn to the statewide ballot initiative as their
weapon of last resort.
The Sacramento Bee’s readers have been telling us for months
through the “Your Voice” feature that the out-of-control cost of
housing has become a major concern — if not cause for alarm. So
it should be no surprise that when Californians cast their
general election ballots this fall, more than one-third of the
measures on their ballot are designed to address the need for
affordable housing.
This November, Californians will have the chance to go to the
polls and vote on a whole slew of issues including who will be
selected to lead our state as our next governor, whether to keep
or repeal a recently enacted gas tax, or whether it makes sense
to keep or eliminate daylight savings. Unfortunately, there is
another proposition on the ballot, Proposition 10, that if passed
will have profoundly negative effects on California’s economy,
our housing industry, including the manufactured housing
industry, renters, and apartment owners both large and small.
A majority of the St. Helena City Council wants to continue
investigating a rent stabilization ordinance for Vineyard Valley
Mobile Home Park, an idea that’s sharply dividing park residents.
An ordinance would give Vineyard Valley residents the choice of
signing a short-term lease of 12 months or less in which rent
increases would be capped or a long-term lease that would not be
subject to the ordinance.
SANTA CRUZ >> When mobile-home owners get into a dispute
with the park owners from whom they rent their lot, their only
real recourse is to hire an attorney and take the property owner
to court.
State law gives the residents a number of rights — on paper — but
there is no active enforcement and many elderly and low-income
residents can’t afford the legal fees to make their case,
advocates say. Instead, they are left at risk of negligence or
unequal treatment on the part of park owners.
Rent hikes greater than 3 percent will be banned temporarily at
mobile home parks in unincorporated Los Angeles County starting
in early October, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors
decided.
The county board voted 3-1 on Tuesday, Sept. 4, to approve on a
second reading a six-month moratorium on rent hikes for mobile
home spaces, a move designed to protect those residents from
preemptive rent hikes while permanent rent control for such
housing is under consideration. The measure becomes effective in
30 days.
BY: CAYLYN WRIGHT AND JIM LOFGRENSeptember 03, 2018
For months, the city of Sacramento has been in the throes of a
heated debate over the city’s affordable housing problem, its
root cause and potential solutions – highlighted by two workshops
arranged by the mayor.
At an initial session held Aug. 14, there was general agreement
that the root cause is a lack of supply. There also was consensus
about the remedy: Build more units, and faster, through new
funding sources and incentives to attract private-sector
investment.
A Santa Clara County Superior Court judge this week rejected
arguments by Mountain View mobile home tenants that they should
also be covered under the city’s rent control program.
In his decision, Judge Mark Pierce upheld a February vote by
the city’s Rental Housing Committee to not protect mobile homes
under the city’s Community Stabilization and Fair Rent Act
(CSFRA).
Manufactured housing is the least expensive type of housing. So,
considering the severe shortage of affordable housing in the US,
why is the annual production of new manufactured housing so low?
Manufactured housing is 35 to 47 percent cheaper per square foot
than new or existing site-built housing, yet the number of
manufactured homes shipped each year has gone from averaging
242,000 per year between 1977 and 1993 to just 92,500 units in
2017.
An estimated 5.6 percent of all Americans, or 17.7 million
people, live in manufactured homes, commonly referred to as
“mobile homes” or “trailers.” Metros located in the South and
Southwest have the highest share of households living in mobile
homes.
The number of mobile homes and trailer parks in the United States
grew rapidly in the 1980s, when the federal government slashed
funding for affordable housing. Today, mobile homes are the
largest source of unsubsidized affordable housing in the U.S.,
providing shelter for one in ten households living below the
poverty line.
While others walked away from manufactured homes, Don Glisson Jr.
stuck around.
He’s seen the industry’s ups and downs in his 36 years working at
Triad Financial Services, the third-biggest lender to buyers of
factory-made houses in the U.S. The rock-bottom was in the early
2000s, when rival firms were getting fat
on subprime loans.
Unincorporated portions of Los Angeles County could see rent
control for mobile homes reinstated more than 23 years after
county leaders allowed similar restrictions to lapse.
On a 3-1 vote Tuesday, Aug. 14, the Los Angeles County Board of
Supervisors supported a six-month moratorium on rent hikes
greater than 3 percent for mobile home spaces. The stop-gap
measure is designed to keep park owners from raising rent before
a permanent rent control ordinance under review takes
effect.
The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday moved to
impose temporary rent caps on mobile homes. The vote comes amid a
broader, controversial push to remove barriers to rent control
across California in response to rising housing costs.
In a 3-1 vote, supervisors approved temporary caps on so-called
space rents — the price park owners charge residents to keep
their homes on the premises. The ordinance, which will come back
for final approval next month, would be in effect for 180 days
and limit rent increases to 3% a year for leases of 12 months and
less.
Tenants rights advocates in two Southern California cities missed
the deadline to get rent control initiatives on the November
ballot, although they still have a shot at the election cycle in
2020, city and elections officials said Friday, Aug. 3.
Santa Ana and Glendale became the fifth and sixth cities in the
region to fail to get rent referendums before voters this
fall. Initiative drives already failed in four other local
cities: Long Beach, Pasadena,
Inglewood and Pomona.
Once an overlooked sector in the housing market, manufactured or
“mobile” home REITs have become one of Wall Street’s quietest
moneymakers.
These communities, often referred to as trailer parks, have
evolved beyond the negative stigma that plagued them in the past,
with many resembling high-end gated neighborhoods today. The
manufactured-home market is benefiting from high demand from
residents in search of more affordable workforce housing
options.
The City of Chino reached a $1.5 million settlement this month
with a mobile home park owner who brought a lawsuit against the
city, alleging the council’s actions caused a loss of income by
delaying and interfering with plans to convert the park to
resident ownership.
The lawsuit, which originally asked for $34 million, was filed in
July 2010 by Chino MHC, owner of Lamplighter Chino Mobile Home
Park, which is on the northwest corner of Philadelphia Street and
Ramona Avenue.
Members of the City Council want the city to conduct more study
and public outreach before deciding whether to pursue a rent
stabilization ordinance that would affect Vineyard Valley Mobile
Home Park.
The council told staff to arrange informational meetings at the
park and delve into the various legal and technical questions
that would be involved in crafting an ordinance to bring rent
control to St. Helena’s only mobile home park.
For sale signs are cropping up throughout the Driftwood Mobile
Home Park in Westminster since notices starting going out in late
June announcing rent increases as high as $300 a month.
For many, that’s an increase of 30 percent to 40 percent, more
than many longtime residents at this senior park of tidy, lushly
landscaped mobile homes can afford. Many here protest
they’re on fixed incomes and will have to move if the increases
take effect.
Sacramento faces a serious affordable housing problem. The Bee
editorial board calls on the mayor, city council, developers and
SEIU-backed tenants’ organizations to set aside their differences
and forge a compromise that takes aggressive action (“The mayor
has a plan to fix the housing crisis. Now he needs help,”
Editorials, July 16).
We agree. That’s why our coalition, Citizens for Affordable
Housing, is committed to finding fair and common-sense answers.
SANTA CRUZ >> Expect this fall’s campaign over just cause
eviction and rent control in the city of Santa Cruz to be
expensive.
The measure would require relocation assistance for tenants
evicted without just cause from single-family homes, accessory
dwellings and condos as well as apartments built before February
1995 and limit rent increases in apartments built before that
date.
Ballot arguments were due July 10 with the city clerk and
rebuttals due Friday, with the first campaign finance report due
July 31.
In response to rising housing costs, activists across Southern
California have pushed for rent control.
Efforts have been made this year in cities like Inglewood, Long
Beach, Pasadena and Pomona to put rent control measures on the
ballot.
After all, what could a more straightforward way of dealing with
rising housing costs than having the government pass laws to
limit rising housing costs?
The owners of Willits Mobile Home Park and many park residents
attended Wednesday’s City Council meeting to make their voices
heard about raises in rent, alleged issues with the new
management company Boa Vida, and a potential rent stabilization
ordinance. There was standing room only at the meeting.
After much discussion, City Council decided not to move forward
with implementing a rent stabilization ordinance.
Voters in Pasadena, Long Beach, and Inglewood won’t get a chance
to vote in November on whether to adopt rent control policies in
those cities.
Supporters of ballot initiatives calling for rent control in all
three cities did not garner enough valid signatures to qualify
the measures for the fall election.
The money, city officials say, is to ease the city’s affordable
housing crisis, which through official policies has triggered a
median home price of “a blistering $2.46 million,” far above the
$448,000 for the state and $180,000 for the nation.
SACRAMENTO — Proponents of a November ballot measure that would
let California cities expand rent control say negotiations for a
compromise have collapsed and that the issue will now be decided
by voters.
The all-or-nothing effort to repeal the Costa-Hawkins Rental
Housing Act is likely to be one of the costliest fights of the
fall election. State lawmakers had hoped to reach a deal in the
Legislature that tenant and landlord groups could agree to, but
that now seems “highly unlikely,” Assemblyman David Chiu, D-San
Francisco, said Friday.
By Gennady Sheyner / Palo Alto WeeklyUploaded: Sat, Jun 25, 2016, 3:14 pm
The Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors has voted to join
with the county Housing Authority and Palo Alto to issue an
ultimatum to the owners of the Buena Vista Mobile Home Park: Sell
your property to us, or we’ll take it by eminent domain. The
threat is a moral, legal and political offense.
California voters will decide in November whether to give cities
and counties new freedom to expand the use of rent control after
an initiative backed by tenant groups earned a spot Friday on
this fall’s ballot.
The initiative would repeal a decades-old state law that prevents
local governments from passing most new rent control laws.
After six long months of hard work, the Humboldt Mobile
Homeowner’s Coalition is now waiting to know whether their
initiative will be on the ballot this November.
Bet you didn’t know California has 517,173 mobile homes.
While I was reviewing Census Bureau data on housing, a curious
data point popped up: Only three states had more mobile homes
than California. But as the nation’s most populous state, it’s
another affordable-housing metric where California trails the
pack: pre-fabricated homes are a tiny share of our
residential-living supply — 3.7 percent vs. 6.6 percent in the
rest of the nation.
PRESS-ENTERPRISE EDITORIALPublished: June 23, 2016 Updated: 6:18 p.m.
Builders and elected officials grappled with the affordability
crisis last week in Ontario at a policy conference put on
annually by the Building Industry Association’s Baldy View
Chapter.
Long Beach activists didn’t make their due date to get a rent
control initiative before city voters on the November ballot, but
they still have a shot to qualify for a subsequent election.
“We’re still going to be out there regularly,” Housing Long Beach
community organizer Jordan Wynne said.
By Jonathan Lansner, Staff WriterPOSTED: 06/25/16, 9:31 PM PDT
The region’s housing crunch is steep, by any economic measure. A
database of housing affordability statistics created by The
Associated Press shows Southern California’s two main
metropolitan regions – Los Angeles/Orange counties and the Inland
Empire – consistently rank among the U.S. markets that most
stretch the household budgets of both homeowners and renters.
Data were census figures through 2014, the latest available.
The crisis caused by the rising cost of housing in California has
a solution: Build more housing.
People can debate where or what type of housing should be built,
but there can be no doubt that more housing is needed. That’s why
it’s so troubling that a measure headed for the November ballot
would cause less housing to be built.
Rent control ordinances essentially all impose some type of limit
on rent increases for all or some subset of rental units in a
local area and also often include requirements for new buildings
to include some minimum percentage of “affordable” units meaning
ones rented for less than the owner could get in a free market.
They are motivated by the idea that rents are too high because
landlords are greedy. That, however, is not the true cause of the
problem.
SACRAMENTO — “In many cases rent control appears to be the most
efficient technique presently known to destroy a city — except
for bombing,” opined Swedish economist Assar Lindbeck. He’s right
on target given that rent control destroys housing markets
because it takes away the incentive to build new apartments,
reduces the willingness of landlords to upgrade and maintain
their properties, and encourages tenants to squat indefinitely in
their below-market units.
By Scott Herhold,, Bay Area News GroupPOSTED: 06/17/16, 10:46 PM PDT
After Supervisor Joe Simitian announced Wednesday that the
county’s Housing Authority would join the fight to preserve the
Buena Vista Mobile Home Park as a refuge for the working class in
Palo Alto, a reporter asked him what it meant. Enough big words.
What was his spin?
The latest turn in the long-running legal feud over a Carson law
limiting rent increases at mobile home parks went in the city’s
favor with a court ruling that could bolster cities’
abilities to regulate real estate up and down California.
By Sheila Dey, Executive Director, Western Manufactured Housing Communities Association.JUNE 20, 2016
The Sacramento Bee recently profiled mobile home
owners who are taking advantage of a “loop-hole” to reduce
their tax liability on beach front homes in Malibu, worth
millions of dollars. Needless to say, the Los Angeles County tax
assessor wants more property taxes, and the law is on the side of
property owners.
SANTA CRUZ — Many people in the Seabright neighborhood knew about
the roiling local debate over rent control even before Zav
Hershfield, petition in hand, knocked on their doors.
Canvassers for renter rights have been through parks,
neighborhoods and local shopping centers since February in this
coastal town, collecting signatures to place a city referendum on
the November ballot limiting annual rent increases and make it
harder to evict residents.
By Arlene Martinez, amartinez@vcstar.comPosted: June 18, 2016
It’s no secret some mobile home parks, which have tried
repeatedly (and unsuccessfully) to have rent control repealed,
sometimes use the long-term leases as a way to get out from under
them.
The Coalition for Responsible Housing shares the dismay of the
Sacramento Bee editorial board about the continued failure to
meaningfully address California’s housing crisis (“Compromise on
housing or face rent control,” April 19).
By Nathan Donato-Weinstein Real Estate Reporter Silicon Valley Business JournalJun 16, 2016, 5:11am PDT
The tool could be used if the Jisser family — which owns the
4.5-acre property and has been trying to close it since 2012 —
doesn’t accept a new offer to buy the park funded by Santa Clara
County, the city of Palo Alto and the county’s Housing Authority,
officials said Wednesday. That’s because the county and city have
now joined forces with the Housing Authority, which has eminent
domain power and signaled it’s agreeable to using it.
California voters this year will likely decide whether cities
across the state should have more power to enact stronger rent
control.
Rent control proponents behind a proposed November ballot
initiative that would allow cities and counties to pass
strong rent control laws say they now have enough signatures to
qualify the measure.
“People understand that rents are out of control, that’s why I
think you’re seeing this initiative move forward,” said Damien
Goodmon, director of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation’s “Housing is
a Human Right” campaign.
A wise man once said that the best way to get out of a hole is to
“stop digging.” Today California is short 1.5 million affordable
homes for families struggling to make ends meet, and the hole is
growing bigger each year.
SACRAMENTO — A renters’ revolt in California could be heading to
the November ballot as a campaign to lift decades-old
restrictions on rent control reported Friday it had gathered more
than enough signatures to qualify.
Organizers are planning rallies in Sacramento, Oakland and Los
Angeles on Monday as they hand in the signatures, which must be
counted and verified by election officials before the initiative
makes it on the ballot.
Nearly half of California renters plan to buy a home, but
many can’t afford it, according to a survey released
Wednesday by the California Association of Realtors.
Napa Valley Register, Opinion: BOE Member George RunnerJune 2, 2016
Just one decade ago, California’s housing market crashed,
resulting in mass foreclosures and dramatic declines in home
values. Today, we face a very different problem — a severe
housing shortage.
After cropping up in the early 2000s, the debate around rent
stabilitzation in mobile home parks has resurfaced in El Dorado
County.
On Tuesday, at the request of District 3 Supervisor Brian
Veerkamp, the Board of Supervisors reviewed the possibility of a
rent stabilization ordinance, which would restrict the frequency
of rent hikes and the amount per increase in mobile home parks
within unincorporated areas of the county.
Gov. Jerry Brown wants to provide more low-cost housing through
an initiative that could unite liberals and conservatives,
Republicans and Democrats. As he outlined last month in his
updated budget proposal, the plan would reduce costs to
homeowners and renters by increasing the housing supply through
reductions in the state’s labyrinthine construction-permit
process.
For years, Gov. Jerry Brown has resisted efforts to spend more
money to build affordable housing. As part of his revised budget
released Friday, Brown announced what he said was a better
solution: making it easier to build homes for low-income
residents. In a new package of legislation, Brown is proposing to
streamline the permitting process for developers building
affordable homes.
Attorneys working on behalf of local mobile home residents say
they filed suit against the city of Mountain View late last week.
They are requesting a court order to force city officials to
include mobile homes under the city’s rent control program.
About 1,100 mobile homes are estimated to be in Mountain View.
Most residents own their mobile homes but rent a space in a
mobile home park. These space rents could be restricted under a
rent control program.
Those in California media and politics understand – finally –
that there is a housing crisis. However, there’s no agreement on
what precisely it is or how it might be addressed.
Major changes to Mountain View’s rent control law could go before
Mountain View voters this fall.
The political action group Measure V Too Costly filed paperwork
on Friday, March 30, for a November ballot initiative that would
heavily modify Mountain View’s rent control program. The
proposal, dubbed the ”Mountain View Homeowner, Renter, and
Taxpayer Protection Initiative,” seeks to curtail most
limits on rent increases and create income eligibility
requirements for tenants.
A federal court jury on Thursday ordered the city of Carson to
pay $3.3 million in damages to a mobile home park owner for
violating his constitutional rights when it repeatedly rejected
proposed rent increases at his park.
Mountain View’s Rental Housing Committee could soon be headed
back to the courtroom over a decision to exclude tenants at
mobile home parks from the city’s rent control protections.
Earlier this month, an attorney representing two mobile home
residents at Santiago Villa issued a demand
letter urging the committee to reverse its decision not to
extend rent control to Mountain View’s 1,100 mobile homes. If the
committee refused, the residents would file a lawsuit to get the
action rescinded, said attorney Armen Nercessian of the firm
Fenwick & West.
California politicians talk about the housing crisis constantly.
But while offering a few token inducements for new construction,
they’re unwilling to address the macro issue.
Clipboards in hand, signature-gatherers are fanning out across
four Southern California cities this month, turning up at
supermarkets and metro stops and apartment complexes to pitch a
measure for the November ballot that they say will be salvation
for renters.
But for landlords, their pitch is blasphemy.
At issue is whether the cities of Long Beach, Inglewood, Glendale
and Pasadena should join a tiny band of California cities that
already have rent control and “just cause” eviction laws that
prevent landlords from ousting tenants in good standing.
California’s affordable housing stock is not keeping up with its
population growth.
“It all boils down to this,” Thornberg said. “Taxes and
regulations are a problem for state businesses, but it’s not what
defines California. In the end, this California growth story is a
lack-of-housing story.”
SACRAMENTO - Register Your Mobilehome California, a new
state program that provides waivers for past-due registration
fees and taxes for mobilehomes and manufactured homes, has saved
homeowners more than $500,000 in its first year of operation.
Besides the savings in fees and taxes, homeowners who have taken
advantage of the program will also see additional benefits. They
are now properly positioned to legally sell or transfer their
property, apply for fire and flood insurance, and receive
financial assistance and rebates from utility providers.
California is in the midst of a severe and growing housing
crisis, and the Legislative leadership in Sacramento appears to
not have the faintest understanding about the causes and possible
real solutions to the problem.
Delaine Eastin is the only major candidate for California
governor to unequivocally support a potential November ballot
measure that would allow stronger local rent control laws across
the state.
Eastin, a Democrat and former state schools chief, said she
supports the outright repeal of the Costa-Hawkins Rental Housing
Act, which prevents rent control ordinances from applying to
housing built after 1995, as well as single-family homes,
duplexes and condos.
“The reason why California faces a housing affordability crisis
is simple, many experts say: Lots of people want to live in the
state and there aren’t enough houses for them.”
Residents from the Wagon Wheel and Valley Oaks mobile home parks
are mobilizing to address the Willits City Council
tonight, asking city officials to adopt a rent stabilization
ordinance after an out of the area property management
company’s acquisition of the properties led to rent increases and
reported intimidation tactics against the elderly and low income
tenants last summer.
Sheila Dey, Executive Director of the Western Manufactured Housing Communities Association.April 3, 2016
WMA’s executive director, Sheila Dey writes, “Instead of
addressing the root cause, some policymakers are championing rent
control, despite the fact that it has never effectively preserved
or expanded affordable housing stocks.”
Mountain View’s Rental Housing Committee on Monday night
reaffirmed its opposition to expanding the city’s rent control
program to include mobile homes. As a result, mobile home
residents warned that they would seek legal action against the
city to overturn the decision.
SACRAMENTO — A ballot initiative to lift California’s statewide
restrictions on rent control has hit a key milestone, with 25
percent of the signatures it needs to qualify for the November
ballot, the California Secretary of State’s office confirmed.
Organizers vowed to take their fight directly to the voters after
a bill to repeal the restrictions died in its first committee
hearing this year at a raucous January meeting attended by over
1,000 people on both sides of the contentious issue.
