Affordable Housing for Thousands of Seniors - Free

From the Sonoma Index Tribune - 9/14/07
By David Bolling

In May of last year Gov. Schwarzenegger signed off on a $2.8 billion housing bond to help the homeless, assist first-time homeowners, and provide affordable housing for farmworkers, veterans, the disabled and the elderly.

The bond, which voters approved in last November's election, will be paid back over 30 years at a true cost of some $6 billion. While the bond will help thousands of Californians keep or find housing, it comes with a huge price tag.

Yesterday, another bill was passed that will give the governor a new opportunity to help literally hundreds of thousands of elderly and low-income California residents find or keep affordable housing. But it won't cost taxpayers $6 billion. It won't even cost them $6 million. In fact, it won't cost them anything.

The bill, AB 1542, was authored by Santa Rosa Assemblywoman Maureen Evans and it reforms the rules governing the conversion of mobile-home parks into subdivisions. After passing easily in the Assembly, the bill stalled in the Senate where it was initially defeated on a 19-14 vote. But Evans didn't give up and ultimately mustered enough support to win passage on a 21-16 reconsideration vote.

The bill closes a loophole that allows mobile-home park owners to subdivide their properties, turning them into owner-occupied residences, without being required to consider the impact on elderly and low-income residents who are often priced out of their homes. Mobile-home park conversion is a movement sweeping California and the country and, if left unchecked, it could displace hundreds of thousands of people.

AB 1542 changes existing law to require that mobile-home park owners address the impacts of converting parks to subdivisions, and it allows local governments to set tougher standards for protecting residents from eventual displacement or eviction.

Evans says there are about 40 mobile-home parks in California currently pending conversion decisions. One of them, Rancho de Sonoma, houses more than 100 people right here in town.

Evans' bill requires that park owners file reports on the impacts of conversion and circulate the reports to residents. It also requires that before a park can be converted, two-thirds of residents must support the conversion and that no park residents can be involuntarily displaced unless the displacement is mitigated according to law.

This is the remedy thousands of mobile-home residents have been waiting for and now it only needs the governor's signature. But Schwarzenegger has been silent on the subject and his Web site makes no mention of the conversion issue or of AB 1542. Mobile-home park owners have a powerful lobby, and there is no question they have the governor's ear.

It's time he heard from the hundreds of thousands of park residents for whom Evans' bill could make a life-changing difference. We urge everyone's support.