By Jesse Kathan | Source
At least 10 mobile-home residents have been displaced from Soquel Gardens RV Park in the past five years, and at least six more residents could be forced to move if county officials allow its closure and accept a redevelopment plan for 100 to 120 apartments.
Amid maintenance and utility problems that prompted state citations, the 20-lot park at 4150 Soquel Drive near 41st Avenue was sold in February to the national, Stockton-based mobile-home park company Harmony Communities LLC.
The park’s closure would require approval from the Santa Cruz County Planning Commission, according to county law. If appealed, the Santa Cruz County Supervisors would weigh it. A forthcoming apartment proposal would need separate approval.
“It’s a lot of stress,” said resident Elizabeth Lopez. She and her 83-year-old mother, Leonor, have lived there for about 15 years. “This owner treats us like nothing.”
To close the park, Harmony leaders would need to show that they cannot make a “reasonable return on investment,” according to county law.
Harmony property managers said they plan to cite nearly $500,000 in repair costs and county rent restrictions as reasons to close and redevelop the park. Even at full occupancy, the park is “guaranteed to remain financially unsustainable,” Nick Ubaldi, regional manager for Harmony Communities, wrote in an email Tuesday.
Harmony has commissioned a consultant’s report on how the closure would impact residents. That report will be complete in roughly two months, Ubaldi wrote. The owners would then need permission from the county planning commission to close and redevelop the park.
To change the park zoning to allow an apartment building, county law requires Harmony to show:
- There is space for the remaining mobile homes in another park in the county,
- Residents would be able to afford rents at another park.
- Any new housing is offered to former park residents “and the construction schedule will not result in long-term displacements.”
Ubaldi said Harmony considers Soquel Gardens to be an RV park, not a mobile home park. He believes it to be exempt from the closure laws. However, he wrote, “we’re voluntarily following the process in good faith.”
The park’s new website calls it Soquel Gardens RV Park. Its legal name is Soquel Gardens Manufactured Community LLC and a sign on the property says Soquel Gardens Mobile Home Park.
County officials have not received an application to close or redevelop the park, according to a statement from the Santa Cruz County Department of Community Development and Infrastructure.
Harmony Communities is talking with developers about a redevelopment plan for 100 to 120 homes, including some affordable homes offered below market rent, Ubaldi wrote. The current residents would be offered homes in the development, and those units might be rented below market rate, he wrote.
Harmony Communities owns mobile home parks across the nation and at least two other parks in Santa Cruz County: Pinto Lake Mobile Estates in Amesti and Meadows Manor Mobile Home Park in Watsonville. The company has been part of more than a dozen lawsuits in California, including a years-long battle over rent hikes at a Fresno mobile home park.
Residents fear displacement
Elizabeth Lopez and her mother live in one of a handful of the remaining mobile homes in Soquel Gardens. The park once included about 20 homes, and until 2021 it included eight renters with Housing Choice Vouchers, also known as Section 8 vouchers. The vouchers paid to rent a mobile home and the lot.
After Soquel Gardens changed hands in February, the new park owners told Lopez that her home needed upgrades to comply with state law, including a new metal skirt that she could not afford. She receives money from the state’s In-Home Support Services to care for her mother, but it’s not enough to afford another place to live.
RV parking spots at Soquel Gardens are now advertised to rent for $1,495 monthly, excluding utilities. Under the county’s rent control rules, spaces could be rented for about $500 each, Ubaldi wrote. But the available spots are now “short-term transient RV parking intended to help offset ongoing operating losses as we work towards closure” and are not subject to rent control rules, he said.
County staff have not received a request from the owners to raise rents above what is allowed by rent control rules, according to the county statement.
In June, tenants received letters from Harmony Communities that said it was considering closing the park.
The park’s decline and sale
Problems at the park date to at least 2020, when inspectors from the California Department of Housing and Community Development cited the park owner for health and safety code violations including exposed electrical equipment and drooping power lines. Regulators rescinded the park’s permit to operate in April 2021, after which the park wasn’t allowed to collect rent.
Soon after, tenants that had Housing Choice Vouchers were relocated elsewhere, said Jenny Panetta, executive director of the Housing Authority of the County of Santa Cruz.
Prior to February, the park was owned by Cristina Locke, also the former owner of the Bayview Hotel in Aptos. She sold Soquel Gardens to Harmony Communities for $200,000, according to county records. Within two weeks, the new owners fixed most of the health and safety violations and were granted a new permit to operate, according to state records.
But the new owners have not brought more stability for the remaining residents of Soquel Gardens, Lopez said. After the park was sold, some remaining residents were bought out and others were kicked out.
Two residents are in an eviction process, Ubaldi said.
Lopez said she doesn’t know what she will do if she loses her lot, but would consider returning to her native Mexico, where she hasn’t lived for decades.
“I don’t know what is going to happen,” she said.
[ED. NOTE: GSMOL leaders and a member of the local mobilehome commission are working with the remaining residents of Soquel Gardens. ]
