Goleta to Consider Ordinance to Protect Senior Mobile Home Park

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This article was underwritten in part by the Mickey Flacks Journalism Fund for Social Justice, a proud, innovative supporter of local news. To make a contribution go to sbcan.org/journalism_fund.

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Tucked down toward the end of Pine and Rutherford Street in Old Town Goleta, neat rows of mobile homes form a quiet community. University Mobile Home Park operates as a mobile home park for seniors, offering lots and trailers for modest rent. Now, with new management, rent is slated to increase and the park may lose its senior designation. Last week, Goleta’s City Council weighed in, ultimately voting to direct staff to draw up a senior housing overlay ordinance. 

The Timeline 

University Mobile Home Park opened in 1959 and has served seniors since at least 2009. In October, the park sold to a new owner, and Harmony Communities Inc. came on board as the management company. 

On October 30, said Senior Housing Analyst Lucy Graham at last week’s city council meeting, park residents received a set of rule changes — including opening the park to all ages — and a rent increase. 

Harmony Communities proposed increasing the rent by 59 percent for the land the mobile home parks sit on. Specifically, Harmony said, the average space in the park rents for $333 per month. The original proposed increase was to $530 per month. Harmony said that it was increasing rent due to the need to cover the rising cost of insurance, utilities, property taxes, and maintenance. 

Across the country, mobile homes are getting more expensive — up about 58 percent from 2018 to 2023, according to online loan marketplace LendingTree. Ownership is changing, too, with corporation sales on the rise. The Private Equity Stakeholder Project, a nonprofit watchdog, reports that private equity made up nearly one in four buyers in 2020 and 2021. 

Mobile home parks don’t follow the same regulations as other types of rentals, and they come with different risks. People may own their own mobile park home but rent the land underneath it. They must find a place to move a large asset — their home — if the rent increases past what they can afford. That’s not guaranteed in the expensive Santa Barbara market. Further, they must pay to move it or bring it up to modern standards to sell it, all of which could cost more money than someone on a fixed income may have. 

Cities are allowed to place rent control ordinances on mobile home parks. Goleta inherited its rent control ordinance in 2002 when it incorporated. It states owners may not raise the rent by more than 75 percent of the consumer price index in a given year. The ordinance does say, however, that new ownership can propose a higher rent increase if management writes out “itemized amounts for increased operation costs” and gives details on capital expenses and improvements. Management must also set a meeting with residents. Then, residents have 45 days from the news of a rent increase to file a petition to dispute it. Residents can negotiate directly, or seek arbitration, which would require employing lawyers and bringing the problem to a hearing before an arbitrator. 

University Mobile Home Park’s residents negotiated with Harmony for a staggered increase for a total of $150 per month over five years. But whether the park will open to all-ages or remain for seniors remains unresolved between the two parties.

Goleta City Council Weighs In 

At its Tuesday meeting, Goleta’s city council made moves to keep the senior housing status. The council directed staff to create a senior housing overlay ordinance, which would preserve the 55+ status of the park. 

Councilmember James Kyriaco represents the district that includes University Mobile Home Park. He made the motion for the staff to start drawing up the senior housing overlay. Kyriaco said low-income seniors are a growing group of the homeless population. 

“I think we have an obligation as policymakers, when we see a potentially adverse outcome, to take every step that we can to prevent that outcome,” he said, in defense of creating the overlay. 

Four of five of Goleta’s councilmembers voted for staff to create an ordinance. Councilmember Stuart Kasdin said he was not sure why, specifically, the senior housing that the mobile home park provides needed to be preserved with urgency. He said that if the mobile home park was set up with specific facilities or services geared toward seniors, it would make more sense to try to preserve it. 

“Absent that, and to the extent that children are noisy and we want peace and calm, it’s less compelling why we have to be urgent about excluding families under those conditions, because the needs for low-income families is as high as it is for seniors,” he said.  

Harmony’s History 

Harmony Communities Inc. has a history of engagement in lawsuits over mobile home parks. Santa Barbara County is currently in court with Harmony over its emergency senior mobile home park ordinance, which it implemented after Harmony took over management for Del Cielo Mobile Estates in Orcutt. 

Last year, San Luis Obispo County’s District Attorney’s office joined several other district attorneys’ offices in the state in a lawsuit against Harmony. The lawsuit alleged that Harmony did not reimburse background fees that they charged, which broke the state’s Mobile Residency Law. It also stated that Partner’s Real Estate Inc., Harmony’s real associated real estate brokerage company, engaged in false advertising on the multiple listing service managed by Harmony. In a November press release, S.L.O.’s DA’s office said Harmony had settled for about $61,000 in civil penalties. 

Harmony has also acted as plaintiff in civil suits. In 2024, the company sued the City of Fresno over its rent control ordinance; in this case, Harmony owns the mobile home park, La Hacienda Estates.