During a statewide affordable housing shortage, the practical option of living in manufactured, or mobile, homes is becoming less affordable for many residents in Santa Maria.
Because of this, a group of residents living in manufactured home parks in Santa Maria is urging the city to implement a rent control ordinance to keep annual rent increases down for park residents. Santa Maria is one of the only cities in Santa Barbara County without such an ordinance in place.
These parks are often home to low-income families and residents who are retired or near retirement. Almost half of the 14 parks in the city are reserved for residents 55 years and older, with many residents living on fixed incomes, like Social Security, who are dependent on cost-of-living adjustments.
Gary Hall, president of the Rancho Buena Vista Mobile Estates’ homeowners association, is a retiree living in one of the 55-and-older parks in Santa Maria. He is also one of the residents urging the city to implement a rent control ordinance.
“Manufactured home living is usually viewed as affordable,” Hall said. “If you can’t keep up with that on a fixed income, you’re going to have a hard time finding any place else that’s affordable.”
When rent increases outpace these cost-of-living adjustments, it presents a problem for retirees who have no way to earn additional income. According to the Social Security Administration, 21 percent of married and 44 percent of single retirees rely on Social Security for 90 percent or more of their income.
Hall said his rent at Rancho Buena Vista increases annually by the amount at which the consumer price index increases, or at a minimum of 3 percent. Increases to the index are also used to calculate Social Security cost-of-living adjustments—however, unlike Hall’s rent, there’s no minimum increase in place.
According to the Social Security Administration, the last time a cost-of-living adjustment exceeded 3 percent was in 2011, while every adjustment between 2012-17 was at or below 2 percent. This difference is difficult to make up for retired residents who are not working and have no way to supplement their fixed income, Hall said.
Over the five years he’s lived in Santa Maria, Hall said his rent has increased at a higher rate than cost-of-living adjustments to his fixed income.
“The reality of it is, rent increases have gone up while cost-of-living increases have not,” Hall said.
Rancho Buena Vista isn’t the only park where a minimum increase is built into the lease, and the park’s HOA isn’t the only group of residents urging the city of Santa Maria to implement rent control. Hall is on a subcommittee for the North Santa Barbara County Manufactured Homeowners Team (NSBMHT), made up of a number of HOAs from manufactured home parks in Santa Maria, Orcutt, Buellton, and Solvang.
Hall and other members from this organization first spoke with Santa Maria city staff and Santa Maria City Council about implementing rent control during a meeting in October 2018. Since that meeting, Hall and other members from NSBMHT have spoken during the public comment period of seven Santa Maria city council meetings between November 2018 and April 2019.
At the Dec. 4 City Council meeting, Susan Parmelee—who lives in Casa Del Rio Mobile Estates and is NSBMHT’s outreach coordinator—said the unique situation of homeownership in mobile home parks makes it difficult for residents to leave troublesome lease agreements. In most parks, residents own their homes, but they rent the land those homes are located on.
“Our homes are not mobile,” Parmelee said at the meeting. “We can’t just pick up and leave as other renters do when rent increases.”
Although mobile homes can be relocated, it’s often not practical. Hall said moving the structure can cost between $15,000 to $20,000.
The city of Santa Maria began holding meetings between residents, park owners, and city officials to figure out a way forward. Hall said the first meeting took place in January, a second meeting was held in March, and a third meeting is scheduled for early May.
City staff didn’t return requests for comment before press time.
This isn’t the first time manufactured home park residents in Santa Maria have urged the city to adopt a rent control ordinance. In 1999, the city held a series of meetings with residents and proposed a rent control ordinance that the City Council rejected, Hall said.
Instead of this ordinance, the city approved a model lease program, with the intention of keeping rent increases low. But because this program isn’t an ordinance, it isn’t enforceable, said Ron Faas, former legislative action team coordinator for NSBMHT.
A November 2017 email Fass received from former City Attorney Gilbert Trujillo describes the city’s role in the program as being a facilitator that helps residents and manufactured home park owners agree on long-term leases.
“Over the years, city officials were comfortable saying they have this model lease program that took care of rent control, but then we found that it doesn’t really take care of this,” Faas said.
Staff Writer Zac Ezzone can be reached at zezzone@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in May 2-9, 2019.
