Goleta to Permanently Protect Mobile Home Park’s ‘Senior Housing’ Status

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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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For decades, University Mobile Home Park in Old Town Goleta has served as housing for folks 55 and older, but until earlier this year, that designation was de-facto, not on the books. Goleta’s City Council voted to make the park’s “senior housing” status permanent on Tuesday, despite park ownership’s intention to sell and rent to all-ages. 

Tuesday’s vote to make a permanent senior housing overlay district over the park area comes after months of discussion from community members and council members alike. Last October, University Mobile Home Park residents received news that the park, which had sold earlier that year, was coming under new management. Residents received rules changes. The park, said management company Harmony Communities, would now open to all ages. 

Several residents opposed this change: they gathered as a community to discuss it and reached out to the City of Goleta. By December 2025, the City Council began discussing a senior housing overlay to keep the park all-ages. A 45-day emergency ordinance passed in February, followed by an extended urgency ordinance in March. Tuesday was the council’s first step in making the senior housing district overlay permanent. 

Councilmember James Kyriaco said that to him, the question was not whether families should move into the park, but how to protect senior affordable housing stock. 

“This is about preserving the one place in our community where seniors have a place that they can afford, where they have a place where perhaps they sunk their life savings into, purchasing a unit [mobile home],” he said. 

University Mobile Home Park is owned by a shell company called University Park Manufactured Housing Community, LLC. The limited liability company was formed in 2025, the same year the park sold, and registered in Delaware. It shares an address with management company Harmony Communities on state documents, and a Harmony employee serves as its registering agent, the person in charge of receiving legal correspondence for the LLC. 

In March, University Park Manufactured Housing Community sued the City of Goleta over its senior housing overlay in federal court, alleging that the housing overlay forced the owners to illegally discriminate against families. The California Central District Court said it will decide whether to dismiss this lawsuit by October 31. 

In a comment to the Independent regarding Tuesday’s vote, Harmony Communities said the following: 

“As we understand it, the ordinance is intended to preserve existing senior housing and therefore will not affect our park, which has been operating as an all-ages community for some time. Any attempt by the city to require discrimination against families would violate federal and state housing laws.”

Discussion of the housing overlay district on the city’s end surrounds how it will impact the park.

Three University Mobile Home Park residents spoke during public comment; two called the past months under new ownership “horrific.” 

“This park is 55 and older. A lot of the people here are on a fixed income and can’t afford to go anywhere else,” one public commenter said.

Rent increases and terminations of tenancy have also impacted residents since new ownership and management came on the scene. The park is rent controlled, and before Harmony Communities announced rent increases of about 60 percent last year, spaces went for an average of $333 per month, according to the management company. 

Harmony argued that costs had gone up: insurance costs, utility costs, property taxes and maintenance costs, requiring it to raise rents above the rent-controlled increases. The company and park residents eventually negotiated a staggered $150 rent increase over five years. That covered space rent: how much the ground beneath the mobile home costs each month. 

A minority of park residents rented both their mobile home and their space. In the past 10 months, at least three of these renters have been served termination of tenancy notices, according to park residents.  

The Independent saw at least one of these notices, which claimed the household was not protected under the Tenant Protection Act, meaning their lease could be terminated at any time without moving assistance. As these individuals are renters of both the land and mobile home, it is unclear why those tenants would be ineligible for the act’s protections. 

Councilmember Jennifer Smith said that broadly, it’s important for people to be aware of their rights when it comes to housing and evictions. She said that if an individual receives an eviction notice, they tend to assume the other party is acting within the law and will move voluntarily. 

“I think one of the biggest challenges in these situations is that there can be unlawful activity by property owners, but if you have a chronic health condition, if you’re disabled, if you’re just afraid to engage in the court system, there’s a real fear,” she said. 

Councilmember Stuart Kasdin abstained from voting on Tuesday and said that when it comes to affordable housing, he thinks the need is universal. 

Still, he said, he saw the park’s push to open the park to all ages as a tactic to increase turnover and raise rents. He asked what else the city could expect when it came to tactics to increase turnover. 

“They’re trying to maximize profits in a rather aggressive — to say it the nicest way possible — way, and I don’t know that they’ll quit,” he said, later adding, “Are there other things we need to be aware of and expect?” 

This was the ordinance’s first reading; it will return to the council at a later date for a final vote.