Water pooled along the mostly dirt roads inside the mobile home park, mixing with waste from septic systems that regularly backed up. On wet mornings, parents loaded their children into cars and drove them through the contaminated mud to the front entrance so they could catch the school bus.

Summer brought a different hardship. In the Coachella Valley, afternoon temperatures often climb above 110 degrees. The park’s aging electrical system frequently failed, cutting power to older, poorly insulated mobile homes and leaving families without air conditioning. Rubi Castro, a mother of four, remembers placing her children in large buckets of cold water until the electricity came back on.

That chapter ended in late April, when Shady Lane reopened after a major rehabilitation.

The project, partly funded through a state program created to help restore California’s aging mobile home parks, replaced the park’s failing infrastructure. Shady Lane now has an upgraded electrical system capable of handling heavy air-conditioning use, new connections to local water and sewer service, paved roads and a shaded playground. Its 32 deteriorating mobile homes were replaced with new manufactured homes, and eight additional units were added.

Castro, speaking in June on a day when temperatures reached 113 degrees, said the heat has been intense since residents returned in April. But inside her new home, she said, the air conditioning has made life comfortable.

“It feels like we live in winter,” she said.

For the first time in years, she added, she is looking forward to the rain.

Shady Lane’s transformation under the ownership of the nonprofit Caritas Corporation is one of the first visible results of a broader overhaul inside California’s housing agency. In 2023, state officials reworked a little-used program that had been intended to provide financial help to struggling mobile home parks but had largely sat dormant for a decade because of a complicated application process and narrow eligibility rules.

The revamped effort, now known as the Manufactured Housing Opportunity and Revitalization program, or MORE, expanded the kinds of projects that could receive state help.

Shady Lane received $10.6 million through the program, in addition to funding from Riverside County and the city of Coachella. It was one of 28 parks awarded money and became the first rehabilitation project completed under the new version of the program. State housing officials say construction has started at 19 other mobile home parks.

In a state where affordable housing remains scarce and expensive to build, the completed project represents a rare success story. But it also highlights the scale of the challenge: California has thousands of older mobile home parks that provide some of the last relatively affordable housing options for low-income residents, and many need costly repairs.

According to the California Department of Housing and Community Development, the state has 4,635 mobile home parks with nearly half a million homes. Most units are occupied by their owners. Manufactured homes are generally far less expensive than similarly sized single-family homes or townhomes, making them a critical housing option for many Californians with limited incomes.

“While it is not as flashy or glamorous as a large, beautiful new rental apartment building, it is a vital source of affordable housing,” said Betsy McGovern-Garcia, vice president of Self-Help Enterprises, an affordable housing developer in the San Joaquin Valley that manages two mobile home parks.

Even with MORE funding, some projects remain delayed by permitting issues or have had to scale back because available funding is not enough to cover their original plans. Housing advocates say the nearly $140 million awarded to more than two dozen parks, covering more than 1,000 mobile homes, is likely only a fraction of what is needed statewide.

For now, there is no additional state money in sight.

The MORE program grew out of a bureaucratic overhaul of a 1980s state loan effort called the Mobilehome Park Resident Ownership Program. As the name suggested, the original program was designed to help mobile home owners, who typically own their homes but not the land underneath them, buy their parks and operate them as resident cooperatives. The program was later broadened to help nonprofits and local governments purchase parks.

After an early wave of acquisitions, however, the program fell into disuse. From 2013 to 2023, it issued only one loan despite having tens of millions of dollars available.

The 2023 overhaul expanded the program to address another urgent problem: the poor physical condition of many mobile home parks. Funds could now be used not only for purchases, but also for repairing and replacing park infrastructure and, in some cases, deteriorated homes. Private park owners became eligible to apply. The state simplified the application process and made loan terms more flexible, including the possibility that many loans could be forgiven.

Lawmakers also added $200 million in one-time funding through two budget bills.

“It better responds to the range of challenges facing park residents and owners,” said Brian Augusta, a housing policy lobbyist who supported the changes.

Roughly two-thirds of the money awarded through the program went to repair and rehabilitation projects.

Caritas Corporation had been the only organization to receive funding during the final decade of the old program. State housing officials encouraged the nonprofit to return that money and apply under the revamped program instead.

“It is an excellent program, much simpler,” said Tracy Bejotte, chief operating officer for Caritas. “They really got it organized.”

Bejotte said Shady Lane is evidence that the changes can work.

Residents agree the difference is dramatic.

“Before, it was a hard and dangerous place,” said Joel Beltran, who sells fruits and vegetables at a local store and lives in the park with his wife and five children. He remembers sparks coming from outlets in his former home.

“Today, it is like Disneyland,” he said.

The high cost of maintaining and repairing homes affects communities across the country, but California’s mobile home parks present a particularly difficult case. Residents are less likely to have the savings needed for repairs and less likely than traditional homeowners to rely on insurance or home-equity loans. Affordable insurance for manufactured housing can be difficult to find, and banks often do not view mobile homes as strong collateral.

The problem is especially acute for older units. Homes built before 1976, when stronger federal standards took effect, are more vulnerable to moisture, mold and fire damage. Many are poorly insulated, making them uncomfortable and potentially dangerous during extreme heat or cold.

Andrew Rumbach, a researcher at the Urban Institute who studies mobile home parks, said many pre-1976 units “probably are no longer fit to live in.” Those older homes are particularly common in California. Rumbach and his colleagues estimate that nearly 40% of the state’s mobile homes were built before the federal standards were adopted, one of the highest shares in the country.

Even when individual homes are in decent condition, the parks themselves often are not. Many were built in less desirable areas on the edges of cities and are more likely to lack reliable utility service. Increasingly, they also face wildfire risks. In many parks, sewer, water and electrical systems are owned and operated by the park owner.

“These systems are often run by whoever manages the park, which may be an absentee owner or a property manager,” said Gregory Pierce, a UCLA researcher who studies urban planning and water insecurity. “Even if they have the best intentions, that person may not be trained to operate a water system.”

While Shady Lane is largely complete, another project funded through MORE has moved slowly.

Buena Vista Mobile Home Park in Palo Alto, owned and managed by the Santa Clara County Housing Authority, received the largest rehabilitation award under the program: $24.6 million.

The money, awarded in winter 2023, was initially intended for a sweeping redevelopment. Older mobile homes would be replaced with new models, leaky gas lines and deteriorating roads would be upgraded, and the housing authority proposed a mid-sized apartment complex with a community center for renters in the park.

But in 2024, those plans were sharply reduced. Housing authority officials cited unexpected cost increases, inadequate funding, resident opposition and a state deadline requiring the mobile home renovation money to be spent by mid-2027. Under a revised plan released late last year, the work will focus only on shared infrastructure, including water, gas, electrical and sewer lines.

Residents of 49 homes were told they would be relocated during an estimated eight months of construction and then return to their existing homes. The move-out date was originally expected in February but has been delayed until September.

“It keeps getting pushed back again and again,” said Sabrina Ramirez, a child care worker who has lived at Buena Vista since 1999.

The uncertainty has been stressful, she said. But the summer delay has helped protect the dozens of outdoor plants she began cultivating during the pandemic, which now surround her 1960s-era home.

“My jungle is delighted,” Ramirez said. “I did not want to move them earlier in the year.”

She and other plant-loving residents have been working with neighbors outside the park to care for flowers, succulents and fruiting vines once construction begins.

The MORE program ultimately distributed $136 million in grants for repairs, replacements and acquisitions in 2023. It rejected applications seeking another $186 million.

That gap between requests and available funding reflects a deep need, but it may still understate the problem, said Kate Rose, deputy director of the Sacramento-based California Coalition for Rural Housing. Some park owners may not have known about the new program in time to apply. Others, particularly small family owners, may not have had the capacity to complete applications before the deadline.

For projects that were not selected, or that never applied, there is no clear source of future help. Most of the money came from one-time state budget allocations, and California’s tight budget for the coming year includes no new funding for the program. The remaining money came from a special fund supported by mobile home park permit fees. According to the latest state figures, that fund had $27 million and has grown by less than 0.5% over the past two years.

Rose described that amount as insignificant compared with statewide need and not enough to support another major round of funding.

That leaves few options for owners trying to stabilize older mobile home communities.

When Self-Help Enterprises acquired La Hacienda Mobile Home Park in Fresno, McGovern-Garcia said, the nonprofit did not have a long-term revitalization plan.

“We just knew there had to be an intervention,” she said.

After years of legal disputes and conflict between residents and the previous owner, the park was in poor condition. All but one of the homes were built before 1980, McGovern-Garcia said. Nearly two dozen were abandoned and boarded up. Most had moisture damage and mold.

Self-Help applied for a $3.7 million improvement grant with the hope of offering homeowners low-cost or deferred-interest loans to replace their homes. The application was not funded.

“It would have completely changed the trajectory of the community,” McGovern-Garcia said. “It is like getting the golden ticket in the mobile home world.”

Original source: CalMatters

The post California Stepped In to Help Aging Mobile Home Parks. What Happened Next? appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.

Summer brought a different danger. In the unincorporated Coachella Valley, afternoon temperatures routinely climb past 110 degrees, and the mobile home park’s old electrical system often could not keep up with the demand from air conditioners. When the power failed, the aging, poorly insulated homes became stifling. Rubi Castro, a mother of four, recalled cooling her young children in large buckets of cold water while waiting for electricity to return.

That changed in late April, when Shady Lane reopened after a major renovation backed in part by a state program created to preserve and improve California’s aging mobile home parks.

The rebuilt community now has an upgraded electrical system designed to handle dozens of air conditioners, connections to local water and sewer utilities, paved roads and a shaded playground. The park’s 32 older mobile homes were replaced with new manufactured units, and eight additional homes were added. The project now provides 40 homes for more than 140 residents.

Castro, speaking on a June day that reached 113 degrees, said she had been comfortable since moving back in April. Inside her new home, she said, “it feels like we live in winter.” After years of dreading storms, she added that she now “can’t wait to experience the rain.”

The transformation of Shady Lane under the ownership of the nonprofit Caritas Corporation is one of the first visible results of a major revamp inside California’s housing bureaucracy.

For years, a state program intended to help struggling mobile home parks was so difficult to use that it sat largely dormant. In 2023, the state reworked and renamed it the Manufactured Housing Opportunity and Revitalization program, known as MORE, giving it a broader mission and more money to address one of California’s most overlooked forms of affordable housing.

Shady Lane received $10.6 million through the program, along with support from Riverside County and the city of Coachella. It was one of 28 parks awarded funding and is the first rehabilitation project completed under the revised program. Another 19 projects have broken ground, according to the state Department of Housing and Community Development.

For a state struggling with high housing costs and an affordable housing finance system often criticized as slow and expensive, the completion of Shady Lane is a rare success story. But the early record of the MORE program also shows how difficult it remains to repair and preserve older mobile home communities.

California has 4,635 mobile home parks, according to the state housing department, with space for nearly half a million homes. Most units are owner-occupied, and they are often far less expensive than comparable single-family houses or townhomes. For many lower-income Californians, they represent one of the few realistic paths to homeownership.

“While it’s not as shiny or flashy as a big beautiful new rental apartment, it’s a vital source of affordable housing,” said Betsy McGovern-Garcia, vice president of Self-Help Enterprises, an affordable housing developer in the San Joaquin Valley that manages two parks.

Still, even projects that secured MORE funding have run into permitting delays, funding gaps or reduced ambitions. The state awarded nearly $140 million to more than two dozen parks with more than 1,000 mobile homes, but advocates say that addresses only a small portion of the need. No new major funding round is currently expected.

The MORE program grew out of a 1980s state loan program called the Mobile Home Resident Ownership Program. Its original purpose was to help mobile home residents buy the land beneath their homes and operate parks as resident-owned cooperatives. Later, the program was expanded to help nonprofits and local governments acquire parks.

After early activity, the program faded. From 2013 to 2023, it issued only one loan despite tens of millions of dollars sitting available.

The 2023 overhaul widened the program’s purpose. Money could now be used not only to buy parks, but also to repair and replace infrastructure and, in some cases, dilapidated homes. Private owners became eligible to apply. The application process was simplified, and loan terms became more generous, with the possibility that many loans could eventually be forgiven.

Lawmakers also added $200 million through two one-time budget measures.

“It’s more responsive to the range of challenges that park residents and park owners are seeing,” said Brian Augusta, a housing policy lobbyist who supported the changes. About two-thirds of the money awarded through the program has gone to repair and rehabilitation work.

Caritas Corporation was the only organization to receive money through the previous version of the program in the decade before the revamp. State housing officials encouraged the nonprofit to return that money and reapply under the new program.

“It’s a great program, much easier,” said Tracy Bejotte, Caritas’ chief operating officer. “They really got their act together.”

For residents, the change is visible. Joel Beltran, a produce vendor who lives at Shady Lane with his wife and five children, said the park had once been a difficult place to live. He remembered sparks coming from outlets in his old mobile home.

“Today, it’s like Disneyland,” he said.

The need for repairs in California’s mobile home parks is widespread. Lower-income residents often lack the savings to fix their homes and may have fewer options for insurance or loans than traditional homeowners. Manufactured homes, especially older ones, are often difficult to insure affordably, and lenders may be reluctant to use them as collateral.

Homes built before 1976, when stronger federal manufactured housing standards took effect, are especially vulnerable to moisture, mold and fire damage. They often have poor insulation, making them uncomfortable and potentially dangerous during extreme heat or cold.

Andrew Rumbach, a mobile home park researcher at the Urban Institute, said many pre-1976 units are “probably no longer suitable to be living in.” California has an especially large share of those older units. Rumbach and his colleagues estimate that nearly 40% of the state’s mobile homes were built before the federal standards took effect, one of the highest shares in the country.

Even where the homes themselves are sound, the parks often rely on aging infrastructure. Many were built on cheaper land at the edges of communities and may not be connected to public utilities. Some are increasingly exposed to wildfire risk. Water, sewer and electrical systems are frequently owned and operated by park owners rather than public agencies.

“These systems tend to be run by whoever runs the park, which may be an absentee owner or a property manager,” said Gregory Pierce, a UCLA researcher who studies urban planning and water insecurity. “Even if they have the best of intentions, that person may not be well-equipped to run a water system.”

While Shady Lane has been largely completed, other MORE-funded projects have moved more slowly. Buena Vista Mobile Home Park in Palo Alto, owned and managed by the Santa Clara County Housing Authority, received the largest award among the 28 funded rehabilitation projects: $24.6 million.

The money, awarded in winter 2023, was originally intended to support a broad redevelopment. Plans called for replacing decades-old mobile homes, leaky gas lines and deteriorating roads. For renters living in the park, the housing authority proposed a mid-sized apartment complex with a community center.

By 2024, however, the project had been sharply reduced. Housing authority officials cited cost overruns, insufficient funding, resident opposition and a state deadline requiring the mobile home park funds to be used by mid-2027. Under a revised plan released late last year, the work will focus only on shared infrastructure, including water, gas, electric and sewer lines. Residents in 49 homes are expected to relocate during about eight months of construction and then return to their existing units.

The move-out date was initially set for February but has since been delayed to September.

“It keeps getting pushed back and pushed back,” said Sabrina Ramirez, a childcare worker who has lived at Buena Vista since 1999. The uncertainty has been stressful, she said, though the delay has benefited the many outdoor plants she began tending during the pandemic around her 1960s-era home. “My jungle’s loving it. I did not want to move them during the beginning of the year.”

Ramirez and other residents with plants are working with neighbors outside the park to care for flowers, succulents and fruiting vines while construction is underway.

The MORE program awarded $136 million in repair, replacement and acquisition funding in 2023, while denying applications totaling another $186 million.

That gap reflects the scale of the need, said Kate Rose, deputy director of the California Coalition for Rural Housing. It may also understate the problem. Some park owners may not have known about the revamped program in time to apply, while smaller owners may not have had the capacity to complete applications before the deadline.

For parks that were not funded, there is little immediate relief available. Much of the program’s money came from one-time state budget allocations, and the next state budget does not include another infusion. The remaining source is a special fund supported by park permit fees. At last count, that fund held $27 million and had grown by less than half of 1% over the previous two years. Rose called that amount “peanuts” compared with the statewide need.

That leaves owners of older parks with limited options.

When Self-Help Enterprises acquired La Hacienda Mobile Home Park in Fresno, McGovern-Garcia said the organization did not have a complete long-term revitalization strategy. “We simply knew there had to be an intervention,” she said.

The park had endured years of legal conflict and tension between residents and the previous owner. Its condition reflected that history. All but one of the units were built before 1980, McGovern-Garcia said. Nearly two dozen homes had been abandoned and boarded up, and many of the remaining units had water damage and mold.

Self-Help applied for a $3.7 million MORE grant to help homeowners replace their units with low-cost or interest-deferred loans. The application was denied.

“It would have changed the entire trajectory of the community,” McGovern-Garcia said. “It really is like getting Willy Wonka’s golden ticket for the mobile home world.”

Original source: CalMatters

The post California Offered Aging Mobile Home Parks a Lifeline. Did It Work? appeared first on The Hemet & San Jacinto Chronicle.