GTWeekly informs MHProNews residents and former residents of De Anza Mobile Home Park in Santa Cruz, Calif. gathered recently to discuss the community’s loss of rent control in 2003 after a four-year federal battle between the city and what is now Equity LifeStyle Properties (ELS). The judge ruled rent control unconstitutional, which allowed ELS to raise site rents to market rate. However, the court did allow residents to enter into a 34-year lease that maintained rents at their previous level, but once the MH changes hands, the rent can go up unfettered, which in turn makes it more difficult for owners to sell and thus regain the equity in their homes. Ishbel Dickens, executive director of the National Manufactured Home Owners Association, says, “How about you start working for rent control at the state level? There are one million individuals living in manufactured housing communities in California. That’s a loud voice to take to the legislature. Don’t agonize—organize.”
