The Lompoc Record published an opinion piece written by Ron Faas, legislative action team coordinator for the Northern Santa Barbara County Manufactured Homeowners Team in California and a resident of Sunnyhills Mobile Home Park. Excerpts from “Mobile Homeowners Face Many Issues” follow: “Manufactured-home owners are in a unique situation in that while we own our homes, we rent the spaces on which our homes are (de facto permanently) located. Since “mobile” homes stopped being mobile many years ago, and now require thousands of dollars and special equipment to relocate, most manufactured homeowners are captive customers in a somewhat monopolistic relationship with the park owner and subject to a severe risk of economic exploitation. This risk, unique to this type of shared ownership, results in an economic imbalance of power between park owner and individual homeowner. NSBMHT’s mission is to promote the general welfare of manufactured-home owners; provide organized representation for the residents of manufactured homes in North Santa Barbara County and cities to federal, state, county, city and private organizations in matters that may have a bearing on the conditions in manufactured-home living; and provide education to residents and others on matters relating to manufactured homes. NSBMHT is loosely affiliated with the Golden State Manufactured-Home Owners League (GSMOL), formed in 1962 to preserve manufactured-home ownership as affordable, quality housing through legislative efforts and help manufactured-home owners solve problems in their individual communities. We receive organizational support from GSMOL and participate in the GSMOL legislative action network.”
