Santa Maria’s mobile home park dwellers have been asking the city for rent control for years now, and recently, they again didn’t get what they asked for.
But senior mobile home park residents may breathe a little easier if the Santa Maria City Council does what the Planning Commission recommended: pass an ordinance that would prevent 55-and-older parks from becoming all-ages parks.
At their July 1 meeting, commissioners discussed the “senior mobile home park overlay,” which is a fancy way of saying that the city is trying to ensure that existing senior mobile home parks stay that way. This includes a rule that at least 80 percent of the homes in those parks are occupied by someone who’s 55-plus.
“This is an ongoing theme. They want to buy a senior park, change the senior park from senior to all-age, scaring out some seniors. A 10 percent increase [for the next renters], right off the bat,” Steve Wagner said. “Look into what happened at Del Cielo in the county.”
As you read last week, what happened to Del Cielo was the “management” company that tried to do all the bad things got spanked by the county—and also inspired a similar overlay ordinance at the county level (which it sued the county over; stay tuned as the lawsuit is scheduled for trial this September).
Wagner, the North Santa Barbara County Manufactured Homeowners Team Legislative Action Team coordinator, was part of that effort as well.
Most recently, Del Cielo tried to pass on some of its “expenses” to residents in the form of rent increases, and the county denied it.
I’m not sure the same would happen in Santa Maria, which has refused to do anything that remotely resembles rent control in the city. In fact, the proposed overlay ordinance specifically states that it’s not trying to control any rent.
“This overlay would not impose new rent control or management restrictions,” the language states.
“Specifically, this overlay aims to maintain affordable home ownership opportunities for residents aged 55 and older; prevent the displacement of vulnerable seniors’ households on fixed incomes,” city Associate Planner Greg Vine told the commission.
So, affordability for seniors based on the market and a tiny bit of regulation that prevents the park from being marketed to any other age bracket. The city is trying to give a little, but not too much, you know?
From 2018 to 2019, the North County Manufactured Homeowners Team advocated for some form of rent control at City Council meetings. The argument went that many of the seniors who live in these mobile home parks have a fixed income and have a hard time keeping up with the annual rent increases built into many of the land leases.
You know what months and months of conversation yielded? An “enforceable” document known as a “model lease,” which caps yearly rent increases at 6 percent and mobile home parks can voluntarily sign on to use. The city doesn’t require mobile home park owners to use the lease.
A little, but not too much, amirite?
The Canary has a lot to say about Santa Maria. Send more to canary@santamariasun.com.
This article appears in July 9 – July 16, 2026.
