Congressional, state Legislature, and Santa Maria City Council candidates gathered at the Casa Grande Mobile Home Park Clubhouse on Sept. 12 to brief voters on their campaign platforms, answer questions pertaining to mobile home parks issues, and—last but not least—indulge in ice cream.
The event opened with 24th District congressional candidates Salud Carbajal and Justin Fareed. Carbajal, the Democratic candidate, briefed the crowd on his family background, including his father’s farmworker experience and how it contributed to Carbajal’s mission to support the working middle-class family. He iterated his support for a minimum wage hike in California and, along the lines of mobile home parks, affordable manufactured homes and rent control ordinances.
Republican candidate Fareed, who arrived late to the event, did not specifically address mobile home parks in his statement but instead pushed for citizens’ involvement in government and laid out his stance on issues including national debt and the drought.
“These are issues that need to be addressed, and quickly,” he said. “We need to make investments correctly in our infrastructure.”
He also promoted investment in desalination and water treatment facilities, and he expressed his support for increasing capacity in reservoirs rather than hiking fees.
Sen. Hannah-Beth Jackson, who is running against Colin Patrick Walch for the 19th District state Senate seat, followed the congressional candidates. Walch was unable to attend. Jackson was asked if she would support rent stabilization at the state level to protect manufactured home owners from rent increases that exceed increases in the cost of living.
Jackson responded by saying housing is a “human right” and that mobile home ownership is sometimes people’s only opportunity to own a home at all. She pointed to legislation she helped pass to protect mobile home owners should mobile park owners attempt to sell their park land.
“I do believe that government has a role,” she said. “I do believe that property owners have a role. I believe that property owners have the right to a return on their investment, but not on the backs of the people who live there.”
Dawn Ortiz-Legg, candidate for the 35th state Assembly District, spoke next. Her opponent Jordan Cunningham was unable to attend.
Ortiz-Legg, the self-proclaimed “clean energy job creator,” said housing is at the top of her list because the housing sector expands to affect all other industries and impacts economic growth.
“We have a housing crisis in California,” she said. “We’re seeing it not only for populations like yours, and residents in areas like this, but also for young working families.”
She said government plays a “very big” role in housing, and that the government should help make manufactured home ownership affordable and accessible.
“These manufactured homes are an incredibly great option for all of us, including myself,” she said. “What we need to do is put together an affordable housing loan system.”
The event closed with City Council candidates, beginning with mayor candidates Alice Patino and Will Smith. Patino, the incumbent, praised Santa Maria’s current ordinances that protect mobile home owners. Smith said the mobile homes are particularly sensitive because of the socioeconomic conditions of most of their residents, and that the government should prioritize those residents’ “welfare and security.”
Council candidates John Childers, Mike Cordero, Michael Moats, Hector Sanchez, and incumbent Terri Zuniga also presented at the event. Mary Hernandez also spoke on behalf of her husband, candidate Ed Hernandez.
Childers said he thought Santa Maria has done a “good job” so far of protecting mobile home owners. Moats said rents need to be reasonable and that he would support whatever avenue is best to achieve that, though he would prefer negotiations between private parties without government intervention.
Zuniga said she thought mobile homes should be dispersed in residential areas to help promote diversity, and Cordero, Hernandez, and Sanchez said they support government regulation of rent.
Sanchez compared mobile home owner protection to soil protection. He said that just as Class A1 soil can’t be developed, “that same kind of protected status for farming is the same thing I’d like to see at the state level for mobile home parks.”
This article appears in Sep 15-22, 2016.