Petaluma’s mobile home reform fight is about a lot more than rent control

The 2.5-hour discussion at Petaluma’s city council meeting Monday, packed with older mobile homeowners and lasting well into the evening, resembled a number of public hearings that have taken place recently around Sonoma County.

Petaluma, with its seven mobile home parks containing about 870 lots, is the latest to update its almost 30-year-old law governing mobile home parks.

Stricter rent control limits on the spaces below residents’ mobile homes went into effect in Santa Rosa this January and Windsor finalized its own restrictions the following month.

In each instance, like in Petaluma, the moves followed months of advocacy by mobile homeowners testifying to the struggle of keeping up with rising rents.

In all these places, mobile home parks are predominantly populated by seniors, many of whom are low-income and dependent on Social Security payments that have failed to keep pace over time with the Consumer Price Index. That’s the measure of prices for goods and services that dictates annual rent increases for mobile home parks in many jurisdictions.

Now, rent in Santa Rosa can only be raised each year by 70% of the index with a 4% cap, the tightest limits in the county, followed closely by Windsor. Rohnert Park already had comparably tight rent control.

“If it was a potential there, we wanted Petaluma to show that we mattered just as much,” said Jodi Johnson, a resident of Youngstown Senior Mobile Home Park, who is part of a coalition of mobile homeowners pushing for stronger protections.

In Petaluma, where rent hikes are tied to 100% of the CPI with a 6% cap, officials signaled on Monday a desire to follow suit in an effort to ensure older residents living on the edge stay housed – an increasing concern in a state and region grappling with few affordable housing options and a growing rate of older homeless people.

“There’s a concern where our elderly – which is mobile home parks elderly living on Social Security – become homeless,” Petaluma council member John Shribbs said during the meeting. “That is our No. 1 issue we need to solve.”

Indeed, in early May, the city council adopted a list of its top 10 goals and priorities that included strengthening the city’s mobile home ordinance.

Proposals by park owners to set up rental assistance programs to target those most in need have yet to sway mobile home owners or officials.

The concerns I’ve heard in Petaluma from mobile home and park owners mirror those that came up in Santa Rosa and Windsor. Some residents describe foregoing heat or turning to food banks to keep expenses down -- experiencing stress that exacerbates health problems and a fear of having nowhere else to go.

Park owners argue that lowering rents will lead to inflated sale prices for mobile homes themselves, limiting affordability for those buying into mobile homes.

They, too, describe growing costs and expenses to operate and maintain mobile home communities and warn of an inability under proposed policy reforms to keep parks profitable and in good condition.

“You have to let the mobile home park owners get a reasonable return so they can make improvements to the community and the housing supply,” said Bill Feeney, who has owned the Cottages of Petaluma mobile home park since 2001.

In that time, he said, he has heavily invested in improving the park and its amenities and added 100 mobile homes.

Further restrictions, park owners have cautioned, could lead to a violation of their right to a fair return and trigger a lengthy and expensive arbitration process established under mobile home laws.

Park owners have yet to formally submit such a challenge in Santa Rosa since its updated ordinance went into effect.

A fight about more than rent control

The proposed changes to Petaluma’s mobile home ordinance go beyond the typical rent control debate. Many of the recommendations proposed by staff deal with improved transparency and accountability when it comes to park owners’ management and residents’ rights.

At the end of 2021, an arbitration took place when new owners of the Youngstown mobile home park tried to raise rents by 40%. They lost that lost that bid, but during the process, Johnson, as a resident advocate, realized just how many residents didn’t understand the extent of their protections under the law or accepted terms they didn’t fully understand.

“It shouldn’t be so hard for us to find out the reality of what our rights are,” Johnson said. “We have to become our own advocates.”

When Shawn Powell moved into Youngstown in 2019, her space rent was $950 per month. But instead of a 12-month lease, she signed a longer-term one, which, under state law, have historically been exempt from local rent control.

Powell pays an additional 2% on top of a price index-based rent increase. Her rent is now over $1,200.

Terms of these long-term leases vary widely contract to contract.

"Shame on me for signing a lease that read that way, but I didn’t know,” Powell said.

In 2020, California passed a law, AB 2782, that no longer allows for such exemptions in long-term leases signed after Feb. 13, 2020. After Jan. 1, 2025, even exemptions baked into older long-term leases will be void.

At the Cottages of Petaluma mobile home park, management circulated a summary of a May 20 discussion over proposed changes to the city’s ordinance, emphasizing owners’ positions.

It also offered financial incentives to lessees who signed an attached “declaration of support” to be sent to city council, advocating for continued exemption of long-term leases from local rent control and loosening of limits on rent hikes upon mobile home turnover in the park.

Feeney said long-term leases are a trade-off: Residents are given the option to sign on to contracts that may charge a little more, but they are protected from any rent increases that might be granted down the line through an arbitration or other unanticipated policy shifts.

He also questioned the legality of the state law to void private contracts already in force and is involved with litigation challenging it.

Navigating mobile home regulations – with their varying local and state considerations and complex and detailed rules on everything from rent to responsibility for upkeep – is incredibly complex, especially for those who might be older, less internet savvy or without the resources to do extensive research.

Even at Petaluma’s city council meeting this week, there was considerable confusion over the nuances of the law. Santa Rosa is still dealing with a complication with its new ordinance that left some parks unprotected by new rent control rules.

An update is planned for a June 20 public hearing.

As Petaluma mobile home residents have banded together to fight for a new mobile home ordinance, they’ve had the opportunity to compare claims by management and disputes over maintenance and help each other cross reference what they’re told with what state and local laws dictate.

Often, there are disparities, several people told me.

That’s why oversight and enforcement mechanisms in any new law are almost as important as rent control for many.

“Although there’s rules and regulations, there’s no policing,” Powell said.

Experiences and relationships with management vary.

Betty Hautzenrader of Royal Oaks Senior Mobile Home Park said hers is communicative and holds monthly meetings with residents. But without strong and enforced protections, she said, “I’m afraid of what the predatory owners can come in and do.”

That’s become a particular concern across the country as real estate and private equity firms, in particular, looking for good investment opportunities, have bought up parks, sometimes raising rents and destabilizing or evicting vulnerable residents.

In turn, the trend has led to grassroots organizing by mobile homeowners and housing advocates and tightening of regulations by officials across California and Sonoma County.

Petaluma city council members will likely consider changes to the mobile home ordinance and take an initial vote at its June 19 meeting. A second vote could then take place as early as July 10 with an updated law going into effect 30 days later if approved.

The city has set up a website with resources, links to past meetings and presentations and other information available at cityofpetaluma.org/mobilehomes.

Those needing further help can contact the Housing Division at housing@cityofpetaluma.org or 707-778-4555. The state also offers guidance through its Mobilehome Assistance Center, accessible at hcd.ca.gov/manufactured-and-mobilehomes/mobilehome-assistance-center or by calling 800-952-8356.

“In Your Corner” is a column that puts watchdog reporting to work for the community. If you have a question, concern, a tip, or a hunch, you can reach “In Your Corner” Columnist Marisa Endicott at 707-521-5470 or marisa.endicott@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @InYourCornerTPD and Facebook @InYourCornerTPD.