By Brett Marsh | Source |
The American Canyon City Council unanimously approved an $80,000 budget increase to fund mediation services for an ongoing rent stabilization dispute at Napa Olympia Mobilodge.
During the Sept. 1 council meeting, Community Development Director Brent Cooper explained the source of the dispute and what recourse the city’s mobile home rent stabilization ordinance offers when residents and park owners disagree over rent increases.
The clash began when the owner of Napa Olympia Mobilodge issued a 90-day notice of rent increases ranging from 20% to 40%, effective Sept. 1, even though the consumer price index for June was 3.8%, according to Cooper. The city’s mobile home rent stabilization ordinance caps annual rent increases at the consumer price index or 6%.
Residents who disagree with a rent increase can request mediation by filing a petition with the city. The petition must identify the dispute and be signed by residents representing at least 51% of the affected mobile home spaces. It must also name one resident to represent the group.
Residents of Napa Olympia Mobilodge, a 1960s facility with 201 spaces, met the signature threshold to trigger mediation.
As a result, the city will pay for and establish a three-person mediation panel consisting of a park owner and a mobile home park resident who are not involved in the dispute, along with a neutral mediator. The city selects the mediator after consulting with park residents and the owner.
“Both parties have to agree to come and talk through their issues and hopefully come to an agreement on it,” Cooper said.
If mediation fails, the final — and less ideal — step is binding arbitration by a neutral third party, according to Cooper.
“The objective here is to make sure that it doesn’t move to arbitration,” he said.
To request arbitration, a petition signed by residents representing 51% of the affected spaces must be filed with the city within 30 days of the final mediation session. The arbitrator’s decision is final and binding and can be challenged in court only through a limited legal review process.
When American Canyon adopted its rent stabilization ordinance in 2011, a shortage of available mobile home spaces had led to low vacancy rates and rapidly rising rents. The city found that those conditions placed a burden on mobile home residents, many of whom “are retired persons on fixed incomes, elderly persons on fixed incomes, or persons with relatively low incomes,” according to the ordinance.
The ordinance also noted that mobile home owners make a significant upfront investment, unlike apartment tenants and other renters, and face high costs to move their homes because of permitting, landscaping and site preparation requirements, as well as restrictions imposed by some newer mobile home parks.
The ordinance does not prevent mobile home park owners from seeking larger rent increases, but it gives residents a process to challenge them.
Claudia Sanchez, the resident spokesperson for Napa Olympia Mobilodge, moved into the park with her brother in April. She said she was shocked by the prospect of such a large rent increase in a park “where over half of the people that live there are on a fixed income.”
“As a community, we want to come to an agreement. We want to live peacefully in a place we want to call home,” she said.
While mediation and any subsequent arbitration are underway, the rent increase is put on hold and cannot be collected until the parties reach an agreement or an arbitrator issues a ruling.
The $80,000 funding increase would come from the city’s general fund and be transferred to the Community Development Housing Division Contract Services budget, increasing it from $28,600 to $108,600.
Vice Mayor Mark Joseph asked whether the $80,000 was a “fixed cost, or just a best-guess estimate of how long it might take or what it might cost.”
Cooper said the requested increase is an estimate intended to ensure the mediation process is not interrupted.
“We don’t know how long the mediation process would last,” Cooper said. “This is really intended to be a generous budget to ensure that the mediation process continues uninterrupted for a positive outcome for the rents for the tenants that live there.”
Cooper also acknowledged that the city is entering unfamiliar territory by using the mediation process.
“I don’t think we’ve had a mediation,” he said. “So this is new territory for everybody.”
For more information on the city’s rent increase mediation and arbitration review process, visit https://americancanyon.gov/Live/Olympia-Mobilodge-Rent-Increase-Review-Process.