Citing a shortage of affordable housing and a growing homeless population, the L.A. County Board of Supervisors has moved ahead with plans to regulate rent in mobile home parks in the county.
The board voted 4-1 Tuesday to draft a rent control ordinance for such properties that would also include ways for tenants to appeal disputes with park owners.
"In many ways, mobile home parks are the last bastion of affordable homes for many people," said Supervisor Janice Hahn, who authored the proposal. "But mobile home residents are seeing their rents increase and are finding themselves in very difficult situations."
For instance: while they may own the physical structure they live in, the property it sits on can go up in rent with little warning. And, Hahn said, "mobile homes" are a bit of a misnomer.
"They're not mobile at all. They're built into the ground as permanent structures," she said.