At Goleta’s University Mobile Home Park, Renters Are Out and One Resident’s Sale Canceled

---

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.

---

On a hot August day, a few renting residents at University Mobile Home Park received a couple papers saying the park’s ownership was terminating their tenancy, along with two others on their street. They had 60 days to move. 

For decades, the mobile home park has served as a housing option for seniors. The park is under a local rent control ordinance, meaning rent has stayed below market rate. Neat trailers with small yards are clustered together along narrow roads. Some trailers show signs of age, but tenants keep the park neat and quiet. 

In 2025, ownership in the park changed hands. A shell company called University Park Manufactured Housing Community, LLC took over as the on-paper owner, and a company called Harmony Communities came on as park management. Harmony sent a new rule book that said the park was now an all-ages park, sparking opposition from many residents. 

Harmony also sent notices that space rent would increase by about $200 per month — a 60 percent jump — to address rising costs. Because of Goleta’s rent control ordinance, the park’s owners had to give residents a chance to formally arbitrate against the increase. Park residents organized and negotiated with Harmony instead, resulting in a staggered rent increase of $150 over five years. 

In much of the park, mobile home owners rent spots, but a small portion of the park residents are purely tenants, renting their mobile homes from the park’s owners. It is a small group of these tenants facing the end of the lease. 

In a statement to the Independent, Harmony said that it is terminating the tenancies for some of the park-owned trailers and removing them from the rental market permanently, a right guaranteed by a piece of legislation called the Ellis Act. Generally, when a landlord decides to remove rental housing from the market and issue terminations of tenancy, they are required to provide one month’s rent to help with relocation, according to the Tenant Protection Act of 2019. 

At least one household showed the Independent their termination of tenancy paperwork. That paperwork says the household is not covered by the Tenant Protection Act. The act protects people who rent both the land and the trailer from park ownership or management, according to a webpage from Attorney General Rob Bonta’s Office. At least one resident told the Independent they had not received any offer of one month’s rent. It’s unclear whether there is another reason the tenants are ineligible.

Mobile Home Owner’s Sale Stopped

On the resident side of things, at least one mobile home owner said he’s concerned the park will declare his trailer abandoned after the park terminated his sale in July. A senior himself, Craig Barnes bought a trailer in the park for his elderly father in 2017. Barnes had grown up in the Santa Barbara area and lived with his father in Goleta.

Barnes said when his father died in 2022, he decided to move out but keep the trailer. When management company Harmony finalized a staggered rent increase for mobile home owners, Harmony notified Barnes that because the trailer was his second home, he was not part of the agreement. His rent would go up from about $500 per month to nearly $2,000 per month for his space. 

With a monthly bill four times higher than before, Barnes said he decided to sell his trailer. He said he found an interested buyer willing to remove his older mobile home and replace it with their new one. Barnes said that once the deal was through escrow, he submitted his 60-day “intent to sell” form as required by Harmony. 

Then, he said, Harmony stopped the sale. Barnes said that Harmony contacted his Realtor, saying the old trailer required an inspection from Harmony and that the new buyer would have to pay the $2,000 monthly rent, rather than the approximately $500 per month other full-time residents have. He said he has been unable to contact someone about next steps after the sale fell through, and that he’s afraid that Harmony will charge him for the removal of his trailer once the 60 days runs out. 

In a statement to the Independent, Harmony said that Barnes refused a required health and safety inspection of his trailer before removal, resulting in the breakdown of the sale. Barnes said Harmony did not provide any steps required to sell until he signed the 60-day notice to start the process. 

Pending Litigation

The park’s owner, University Park Manufactured Housing Community, LLC, is currently suing the City of Goleta in federal court over the city’s ordinance that requires the park to remain for residents 55 and older.  Current and possibly former Harmony employees are listed as University Park Manufactured Housing Community’s registering agent and manager in state filing documents. A motion to dismiss the case is still pending. 

Goleta City Councilmember James Kyriaco, who represents District 2, where University Mobile Home park is located, said that the city is in court because it is fighting to protect vulnerable community members from predatory actions taken by park owners. 

“They are putting at-risk seniors out on the street to make a profit but gentrifying Old Town Goleta. What Harmony is attempting to do is shameful — and we are taking every action possible to stop them,” he said in a comment to the Independent. 

Parks managed by Harmony have been involved in lawsuits throughout the state. Close to home, the owners of Del Cielo Mobile Estates in Orcutt sued Santa Barbara County over its emergency senior housing overlay law in 2024. A court trial is scheduled for September 14.