The owners of Larkspur’s Marin Park have pushed off a rent hike for mobile home tenants, but many say a long-term agreement may be out of reach.
A June 1 rent increase of about $75 was planned, but was deferred until August, said Gabe Paulson, a Larkspur councilman who sits on an ad hoc city committee studying the issue. A second extension until October 1 was granted last week.
Marin Park manager Kristine Guerra said the economic climate created by the pandemic made the move a challenge.
“It’s difficult to defer a rent increase when we are already losing money,” said. “But on the other side of things it was the best thing to do for our tenants.”
The City Council at its meeting Wednesday directed the committee to continue working to find a long-term agreement that benefits the park and its tenants.
Paulson said long-term rent discussions have been on hold awaiting the outcome of Senate Bill 999 and Assembly Bill 2895 in the Legislature. SB 999 would close a loophole that does not allow for rent-control agreements with mobile-home leases that exceed 12 months, while AB 2895 would impose a statewide rent-control cap on mobile homes.
“Both pieces of legislation have passed their respective houses and would currently be debated right now in the California Assembly and Senate,” he said, adding that the deliberation was delayed due to the pandemic. He said action on the bills must be taken by Aug. 31.
Meanwhile, the city’s ad hoc committee has been working to broker an agreement over rent control. The committee was established in December after tenants expressed concern about continued rent hikes that could price people out of their homes.
“We sort of bifurcated the current situation into short-term and long-term relief,” Paulson said. “And I think we’ve achieved short-term relief with the two-month extensions, twice. I don’t think long-term relief has been really meaningfully put on the table yet.”
Bridget Gleason, a Marin Park resident, said, “We are committed to working together with the owners and with the ad hoc committee, but we don’t have a lot of optimism around the ability of a long-term agreement to be successful, nor have other mobile home parks throughout the state had very much success with that.”
She added that tenants are anxiously awaiting the outcome of the proposed legislation to protect mobile-home renters.
“We are hopeful, obviously, about the state legislation, which may obviate the need to even continue anything other than working together on other things which we have started doing,” Gleason said.
Paulson said he and Vice Mayor Kevin Haroff, also a member of the ad hoc committee, sit on the Chamber of Commerce’s small-business fund group. He said there is an increasing awareness of the impact of the pandemic on small businesses like Marin Park.
Guerra said the park has not received any financial assistance from the chamber. She added that the restrictions on short-term rentals due to the pandemic has cut revenue considerably, and many tenants have left the mobile park after losing their jobs.
“Our main issue is being shut down for short-term rentals,” she said. “Our RV park in summer is usually sold out. We were shut down for months until we were allowed to open June 29, but now we are only allowed to open every other space, which significantly hinders our business.”
The county expressed interest in purchasing Marin Park last year to preserve affordable housing for workers, said Marin County Supervisor Dennis Rodoni.
“The Marin Park mobile homes are a valued community asset,” Rodoni said. “I appreciate the owner postponing rent increases during these difficult times.”
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Larkspur mobile home owner postpones rent hike for tenants - Marin Independent Journal
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