SANTA PAULA : Mobile Home Rent Hike Limit Sought

A group of mobile home owners in Santa Paula is collecting signatures for a proposed ballot initiative to limit rent increases at the city’s eight parks, organizers said Monday.

The proposed initiative seeks to restrict increases to a onetime fee of $25 when a mobile home is sold. A 25% increase is now permitted by the city’s rent control ordinance, said Helen Currier, spokeswoman for the United Mobilehome Owners Assn. of Santa Paula.

Also, the initiative would eliminate rent increases based on capital expenditures for street and grounds repair, she said. Currier and many of the 1,500 residents of mobile homes have criticized the city’s ordinance, saying it allows unfair increases that make their homes less desirable to buyers. About 6% of the city’s residents live in mobile home parks. Currier, a resident of Santa Paula West Mobile Home Park, said some homes have been on the market for nearly two years without any takers.

Assistant City Manager Paul Eckert said the association’s proposed June initiative could result in poorly maintained parks because the owners would have no economic incentive to keep them up.

To qualify for the June election, organizers must collect more than 1,300 signatures, officials said.