Mobile Home Listings & News

Banning balks at mobile home rent control

By Larry Rand
Record Gazette



Though a consultant's study found Banning's mobile home rents to be 20-40 percent higher than surrounding communities', the Banning Community Redevelopment Agency rejected rent control at a special June 25 meeting by not voting on it.

At a special meeting of the city's Community Redevelopment Agency, the CRA directors - a.k.a. the Banning City Council - decided to use different strategies to deal with skyrocketing rents and alleged management shenanigans at Mountain Springs manufactured home park, which residents said have made sales or rentals of their homes next to impossible.

But the CRA left what those strategies might be to the imagination of the standing room only crowd in the Banning City Council Chambers.

Despite letters from the Mobile Home Educational Trust that said there were no findings on which to base rent control, Consultant David Paul Rosen found that Banning's rents were significantly higher than those in neighboring Beaumont, Calimesa and Yucaipa, three of the 91 cities in California with rent control. Rents also were lower in unincorporated Riverside County, which has mobile home rent control.

However, Rosen said that despite recent rent increases of up to 30 percent at Mountain Springs, its rents were “at the high end of normal for this market,” by which Rosen obviously meant Banning alone, since surrounding towns' parks have much lower rents.

Rosen also noted that new leases at Mountain Springs call for annual rent increases of eight percent that would quickly take the park's rents above even the high-priced Banning market.


The park's amenities, according to residents, are an unheated swimming pool, no clubhouse, and a tennis court that residents said was weed-infested and unplayable.

Vacancies at the park, according to Rosen, are 20 percent higher than at any other Banning mobile home park.

Rent increases are a critical issue for mobile home residents, most of whom own their homes, but rent the land beneath them. According to Rosen, 87 percent of Banning's mobile home residents are on a fixed income, and the majority of those incomes are less than $30,000 a year.

Complicating the issue was the disparity between manufactured home parks and what used to be called trailer parks, with moveable units. Rents at manufactured home parks are higher, as are residents' expectations. Mountain Springs is in the latter category.

Leading the charge against rent control was the Nordquist family, developers and proprietors of the Mountain Air mobile home park. The Nordquist's said that the proper strategy would be long-term leases that would assure residents of what their rent would be for years to come. The Nordquists' use of long-term leases has resulted in one of the most affordable parks in the city, with median rents 38 percent lower than Mountain Springs and comparable to surrounding towns'.

“The problem with rent control,” said George Nordquist, “are the hidden costs. It's a very expensive procedure for everyone if anyone has a complaint. Long-term leases are a much more economical solution.”

But Mountain Springs residents with older long-term leases said that their landlord would not honor them, and enforcing the leases in court can be costly, time-consuming and complicated.

CRA directors were concerned about the situation at Mountain Springs, but avoided comment on the unusually high level of rents in Banning.

“I've had concerns,” said Councilman John Machisic. “I hoped we'd look at this very carefully, because it affects the whole city. The consultant did a very good job, and the information pointed out a problem with one park.”

Mayor Brenda Salas said that the rights of Mountain Springs residents are at stake.

“When people can't rent their own property, we need to take a better look,” she said.

“The information doesn't support rent control in the city of Banning,” said Councilman Bob Botts, without indicating how much higher than surrounding towns' rents that Banning's would have to go to qualify.

The CRA will focus its attention on what CRA Director Jae Von Klug called “the problem park,” avoiding the larger question of why median rents in Banning are so much higher than in surrounding communities - all of which have rent control.

Contact Larry Rand at lrand@recordgazette.net or 849-4586, ext. 26