Residents of Malibu’s two mobile home parks oppose an assembly bill that could lift rent control protections for some residents.
By McKenzie Jackson / Special to The Malibu Times
Residents of two mobile home parks in Malibu are up in arms over a state bill that, if made into a law, would lift local rent control agreements in mobile home parks in Malibu and across the state.
Assembly Bill 317, which passed the state Assembly in January and is sponsored by Assembly Majority Leader Charles Calderon, would exempt mobile homes from rent control ordinances if the mobile home is not the owner’s only residence. The bill is currently awaiting review by Senate Judiciary Committee. The five-member panel is set to review the bill in June. In a sign of protest of the bill’s passing, many of Malibu’s 570 mobile home owners have been sending letters that oppose the bill to the committee members.
Residents of both Paradise Cove mobile home park and the Point Dume Club say the bill would be a disaster for homeowners.
Aaron Guttman, president of the Point Dume Club, said the bill would allow mobile home park owners to raise rents to whatever they want.
“That will displace many people, destroy home values and it would be a blow to the housing market,” said Guttman, who has owned a mobile home in Malibu for four years. “You are talking about destroying the value of these homes. You are talking about knocking the value down to pennies on the dollar. If rents go up from say $2,000 a month to $7,000, you are going to see a lot of quick sales or just walking away, which will just flood the market.”
Guttman said Calderon, who represents District 58 in state assembly, has tried to abolish rent control for several years and failed. Guttman said this year Calderon broke the bill down to only include mobile home parks.
“Every year when he does rent control in general it gets shot down,” he said. “Now, he has diluted it just enough to where he was able to put it through.”
Multiple messages and emails left at Calderon’s City of Industry office went unreturned over several weeks seeking comment for this story. Multiple calls to the owners of the two Malibu mobile home parks also went unreturned.
The Malibu City Council is also fighting the bill. Mayor Laura Rosenthal met with a member of Calderon’s staff at the state capitol last month and voiced her displeasure with the bill. During its March 26 meeting at city hall, the council unanimously approved taking a position of opposing AB 317 and authorized Rosenthal to send a letter to District 23rd State Senator Fran Pavley and other interested parties urging them to oppose the legislation.
Councilmember John Sibert said the potential passing of Calderon’s bill is not just an important issue for mobile home residents in Malibu, but mobile home owners across the state.
“You can’t even have a timeshare somewhere else or you lose your rent control,” Sibert said. “This is really a camel nose under the tent. This is a way for mobile home park owners to try to be able to make more money, and I understand that motivation and this is a very bad way to do it.”
Guttman told the five-member council during the meeting that mobile home residents in Malibu make up 10 to 12 percent of the city’s population.
“So this bill could affect up to 12 percent of the city of Malibu,” he said. “This bill is targeting the service people, the teachers, the civil servants, and everybody who relies on this low income housing to service this community. It would just be devastating. The outcome of this would just destroy lives, including senior citizens who are on a fixed income.”
Paradise Cove resident Mikke Pierson said Calderon’s bill only benefits a few mobile home park owners.
“It does nothing but severely damage mobile home owners,” he said. “It would cost equity in every mobile home in Malibu. It would hurt all of us because that market would dry up. The market for second homes would dry up. If you have an elderly parent that you bought a home for, that will dry up, and that will take down the value of all the other mobile homes too.”
Annie Ellis said the bill was a cash grab by the mobile home park owners.
“They have tried to get it through for many years and it is all the big mobile park owners,” she said.
John Mazza, a member of the Mobilehome Park Rent Stabilization Commission, said if the bill passes the city council should call a meeting to explain provisions in the law.
Mayor Pro Tem Lou La Monte said the bill did not help Malibu.
“This does nothing but hurt our community,” he said. “We have rent control for a reason. We need to keep it here, and we need to oppose this bill.”