San Jose makes move to protect mobile home residents
SAN JOSE -- Mobile home park owners in San Jose have new rules restricting how their properties may be converted for other uses.
San Jose has an estimated 10,836 mobile homes with about 35,000 residents living in 59 mobile home parks. That's the largest number of mobile home households in any city in California.
Mobile home owners purchase the dwelling but they do not own the property it sits on. Mobile home owners pay a property lease to the park owners.
"Gives you a lot of anxiety. What if? What if they come and say they're selling and say you have X amount of time to leave? So it could be very nerve-racking," said Colleen Andrada, who has owned a mobile home in the Imperial Mobile Estates for about 19 years. "What am I going to do? Where am I going to go? How am I going to move everybody?"
The San Jose city council unanimously approved new rules that focus on developers or property owners who want to convert mobile home parks into other developments, including apartments. Developers or property owners must get approval from city council to change zoning rules. https://sanjoseca.primegov.com/Portal/Meeting?meetingTemplateId=16477
"I would actually say that San Jose needs more of theses types of communities," said Gary Campanella, who owns a mobile home at the Imperial Mobile Estates in San Jose. "The city has a mix of rentals, high-end homes (and) mobile home communities where people with middle-to-low incomes can afford to buy a piece of property. Yes, there's a land lease. But, in many cases, it's certainly not as high as having to rent an apartment or condo."
