Pulte Homes has been eyeing Winchester Ranch Mobile Home Park in San Jose, California, home to 145 mostly low-income seniors and disabled residents, as a possible site for market-rate condos. Homesite rents pale compared to the median home price of $612,250 in San Jose, giving community owner Cali-Arioto Properties consideration to sell the property, especially since Winchester is in part of the city set for future mixed-use development. However, if the site is re-developed with market rate homes, it would further reduce the city’s affordable housing inventory. According to sanjoseinside.com, a regional housing assessment requires the city to build 19,000 affordable homes between 2007 and 2014—and it currently has only 20 percent of that total. While the sale of the manufactured housing community (MHC) is only tentative, and the city has yet to rezone the land, the homeowners association will be sending representatives to the Nov. 12 city council meeting. As MHProNews understands, 57 of San Jose’s 58 MHC’s are within a mile of proposed urban villages, and eleven sit adjacent to urban village boundaries, making them ripe for potential development. While it raises the continuing specter of private property rights versus affordable housing for low-income residents, it is not clear if the residents of Winchester Ranch would be compensated if they have to move.

(Photo credit: santeepatch–manufactured housing community in Santee, California)