After a heated debate, more than 20 public comments, cheering, scoffing, and shaking heads, the Santa Maria City Council voted 3-2 (with Mayor Alice Patino and Councilmember Etta Waterfield dissenting) to re-analyze the city’s enforceable model lease for mobile homes, hold community listening sessions, and see if there’s room for improvement to help alleviate ever-increasing rent costs for mobile home residents.
“It’s our job as elected officials to look at how we can improve the policies we’ve enacted when we hear that they’re not working,” Councilmember Gloria Soto said during the June 7 meeting.
The agenda item came after Gary Hall, president of a mobile home rent stabilization advocacy group, and fellow residents spoke up during general public comment at more than 27 City Council meetings to advocate for a rent stabilization ordinance that could limit the amount that landowners can increase rent each year. Residents advocated for the ordinance because landowners aren’t required to use the enforceable model lease (created in 2019)—which has a 6 percent ceiling on annual rent increases—according to previous Sun reporting.
On June 7, Rancho Buena Vista resident Frank Thompson spoke during public comment on the model lease program, saying that he understands that park owners have to conduct their businesses, but there should be a better balance between the cost of living and income.
“When I first moved to the park, rent was a quarter of my income, now it’s half of my income. I feel that there has to be a slowdown or a stop to the amount of rent that is increased every year,” Thompson said
Although the City Council didn’t move forward with an ordinance, its decision opens up an alleyway to explore solutions that satisfy both sides, Soto said.
“We have to try and think outside the box to support residents during a time when housing affordability becomes challenging,” she said. “It’s our role to listen to the needs of our residents. They come to us for policy solutions that could alleviate the burden and improve quality of life.”
Currently, six of Santa Maria’s 14 mobile home parks use the model lease—representing 79 percent of the total spaces within the city limit. Of those using the lease, there’s been one reported incident in the last two years it’s been in affect—which was resolved privately, city documents stated.
Mayor Alice Patino said the lease works well and the issues were already discussed in the 17 months prior to its creation.
“I’m not saying the model lease is perfect, but I don’t think anything we decide would be perfect with everyone,” Patino said. “I wouldn’t mind looking at something for rental assistance, but I’m not interested in looking in the model lease at all.”
Councilmember Etta Waterfield agreed and added that government officials should not be interfering with the way park owners conduct their businesses.
“I completely disagree with this motion because you’ll never satisfy Gary Hall and his group with a deeper dive. It just gets deeper and deeper. … You give a crack, and it’s going to be ‘boom,’” she said.
Councilmember Mike Cordero countered by saying this motion gives the council to the opportunity to find solutions to “boom.”
“We can look at other options that would work toward a level of resolution, and not pigeonhole ourselves into just the model lease. We can look at rental assistance, federal government, and state government [programs]. I don’t know if we are going to find anything, but it’s a broader avenue to look at,” he said.
This article appears in Jun 16-23, 2022.