Moratorium on Horizon to Save Senior-Only Mobile Home Housing in Santa Barbara County

The Santa Barbara County supervisors moved unanimously and with the bureaucratic equivalent of the speed of light to push full steam ahead on an emergency moratorium to protect senior-only mobile home parks from possible conversion to all-ages parks. For the supervisors, such a moratorium is warranted on the grounds the loss of senior-only parks qualifies as a health, safety, and welfare emergency. Supervisors urged county staff to move “expeditiously” to come back with an emergency moratorium.

“‘Mobile homes’ — that’s one of the biggest misnomers there is,” said Supervisor Steve Lavagnino, who noted he grew up living in a mobile home with his mother. “You don’t move.” 

After the moratorium goes into effect, the supervisors vowed to move forward with longer-term protections. These would involve the creation of new zoning overlay designations that would prevent existing senior-only mobile home parks from converting to all-ages parks. Another overlay zone would be created to prevent mobile home park owners from converting to new non-mobile-home uses. 

Currently, there are 21 mobile home parks throughout unincorporated Santa Barbara County; of those, 11 serve senior-only populations. Translated, of the 2,401 mobile home spaces that fall within the county’s jurisdiction, 1,862 are in senior-only parks. 

Supervisor Laura Capps noted that in just a few years, one out of every four county residents will be 60 years old or older. In this context, the supervisors agreed, mobile home parks represent a significant repository of affordable housing for an especially vulnerable population. Six of these parks lie just outside the City of Santa Barbara’s boundaries; seven exist just outside Orcutt.

Sparking this sudden stampede to action was the announcement this summer by the new managers of the Del Cielo Mobile Estates in Orcutt — Harmony Communities — that they intend to convert the park to all-ages. This July, the new managers stated they regarded senior-only parks as a form of age discrimination. 

For residents of the 185 coaches there, this marked the beginning of the end unless the supervisors saved them. Leading the charge to do just that is Supervisor Bob Nelson, whose district includes the park. Nelson said the new management team dismissed the opposition as a “vocal minority.” In response, Nelson said he surveyed the residents himself. Of the 121 who responded, Nelson said, 120 opposed the change. With those results, Nelson said he was inclined to dismiss Harmony Communities’ arguments as “some noise.”

Adding a sobering sense of urgency to the discussion are the exceptionally long waiting lists — now more than 5,000 people long — to get into any Housing Authority units, whether city or county. A handful of mobile home park tenants showed up to raise an alarm over “predatory investors” looking to gobble up low-income housing. In Santa Barbara, an average coach sells for between $300,000 and $500,000. In Orcutt, the prices range from $100,000 to $200,000. 

Park residents said unscrupulous owners will enact new rules making it all but impossible for residents to sell their coaches to new owners. They will then offer to buy the coaches for far less than the existing owners could get on the open market. Once park owners control both the land and the coaches, they can easily bypass the state’s rent-control laws concerning mobile home parks and charge top dollar to their newer, younger tenants. 

For residents at Del Cielo, the clock is ticking loudly. Based on their lease agreements, management there has to give six months’ notice before converting from senior-only to all ages. That notice, the supervisors were told, was given by Harmony Communities five months ago.