What is SB 900, and Why Do We Need It?

SB 900 will help protect seniors and working families now living in mobile home parks where condominium conversions are being proposed by the park owners. The bill will also give cities and counties greater authority to enact rent protections for mobile home owners in these parks.

Hundreds of thousands of low- and moderate-income seniors, people with disabilities, and working families have turned to mobile homes as their last option for affordable housing. They own their mobile homes, but rent the spaces their homes sit on from mobile home parks. Over 100 California communities have adopted mobile home park rent control ordinances in order to keep rents for these spaces affordable.

But many mobile home park owners are now subdividing their properties and converting the spaces to condominiums. This allows them to make huge profits selling some spaces at market rates, and undermining rent control on spaces still being rented. (Under current law, sale of even a single space as a condominium begins phasing out local rent control for all the residents of the park.)

For most of these low- to moderate-income residents, buying the space their homes sit on is not an option because of the excessive cost, the difficulty of finding financing, and uncertainty about the space’s cost until after the resident commits to buy.  Many residents who are forced out of their spaces would lose their homes entirely, because moving them is expensive, difficult, and often illegal.

As of September 2007, there were at least 40 pending mobile home park conversions across California, including Santa Rosa, Rohnert Park, Hayward, Vallejo, Buellton, Carson, Ojai, and San Luis Obispo.

SB 900 will allow local governments to require park owners who propose a condo conversion plan to report on how the plan would impact very low-, low-, and moderate-income homeowners. It would allow local governments to require mitigation for any households who would be hurt by the plan. The local government would also have the authority to approve or deny the plan based on its effect on the well fare of its citizens and its impact on the community's affordable housing. Limits would be established on rent increases for both low-income and other occupants following conversion.

Read letters about SB 900

Read the letter CARA has written about SB 900 and its identical twin, AB 1532, here.

More information about SB 900

See the CARA Legislative Committee tracking report on Calif bills.

Read LegInfo, the official legislative website, on SB 900.

(Leginfo, the Official California Legislative Information website, describes Senate and Assembly bills, with texts, current status, analyses comparing the current situation with changes a bill would make, anticipated fiscal impacts, supporting and opposing arguments and organizations, and other valuable information.)

back to CARA's priority bills.