A San Jose mobile home park with hundreds of spaces has failed to get city approval for a proposed rent increase.
Officials with the San Jose Rent Stabilization Program have denied the Golden Wheel Mobile Home Park owner’s request to raise rents on low-income residents by $60 per month for at least 12 years. Under the city’s mobile rent policy, property owners can raise rents up to 7% without city approval. With tenants at the mobile home park paying as low as $595 per month, the proposed rent increase would’ve been about 10% for the lowest income tenants, according to San Jose housing officials.
Jeff Scott, spokesperson for the housing...
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Nick Ubaldi, regional manager for Harmony Communities, which oversees the 221-space mobile home park, said they don’t agree with the denial because they need to recoup the money invested in recent renovations made to the park. “Over $1 million was recently invested in the park. The ordinance forces rents well below market rate, making it difficult to operate a park of this size,” Ubaldi told San José Spotlight. “By denying this increase, the city has set the business back, discouraged further investment and ultimately put residents at risk as the park deteriorates over time.”
Of all the stupid things that bureaucrats have approved over the decades, the top of the list has to be rent control. All it does is create a lower-quality housing market, eliminate new construction, and makes all property owners perpetually weighing the option of closure. Nobody can intelligently argue that rent control is smart – just look at how many famous economists have blasted it over the years – and, when pressed with explaining how it’s beneficial, they simply try to distract with name calling and old, worn-out Democratic messaging.
At some point the people who live in California and other rent control states are going to have to vote to eliminate this idiocy – or live with inferior housing options for an eternity.
As for this mobile home park, I imagine they will be tearing it down for redevelopment. Who would blame them?