Legislation you recently introduced would change the way mobile home owners can sell their homes. What is the purpose of this bill?
In the Monterey Bay Area and throughout our state, mobile homes offer an affordable avenue to home ownership for many buyers, especially for seniors and fixed-income families. In fact, more than 700,000 people live in California’s 4,734 mobile home parks. However, a mobile home owner whose home is located in a mobile home park does not own the land the unit sits on, and he or she must pay rent and fees for the land and any community spaces. In order to sell a mobile home located in a park, potential buyers must be approved by park management. Home owners trying to sell their home are therefore reliant on park management to approve the buyer so that the sale can be completed. Park management are not limited in the number of potential buyers they can reject, which places pressure on home owners to find a buyer that qualifies under the standards set in place by park management. Most standards are not set or regulated by the state and can vary widely from park to park. As a result, responsible and trustworthy potential buyers can be unfairly turned away.
Because of this problem, this month I introduced AB 2026, a bill that improves mobile home owners’ ability to sell their homes to an eligible buyer. The bill requires the purchaser of the mobile home to be presumed to have the ability to pay if he or she has been approved by a state or federally chartered financial institution for a loan to buy the mobile home. Park management must provide documentary evidence that the buyer has not complied with rules and regulations in a housing unit within the last three years in order to deny them on those grounds. A buyer cannot be denied solely because they own another mobile home or residence. AB 2026 also requires that management, upon request from a potential buyer, provide a list of information that will be used to decide eligibility for residency in the park. If the potential buyer is denied, management must provide them with the specific reason for their denial and, upon request, meet with the buyer to reconsider the denial based upon any additional information available at that time.
It’s important that we have protections in place to ensure that responsible and trustworthy home buyers can purchase these homes without being subject to overly restrictive standards put in place by park management.
You have also introduced a bill that would give ID cards to prison inmates. Why?
This month I also introduced legislation that requires state prison inmates to be issued current California identification cards upon release. This will assist men and women parolees in their transition to post-release life. Recently released parolees need a state-issued ID card to access critical social services such as CalFresh, housing assistance, and MediCal. Immediate access to MediCal is especially important for parolees who need medication to stay physically and mentally healthy, and the other services are necessary for individuals who need stability to ensure that they don’t become another recidivism statistic.
Under current law, in order to get a California ID card, parolees must go to a DMV office and show the DMV worker their prison identification as proof of who they are. This is a difficult process that unnecessarily burdens the parolee and reduces the likelihood that he or she will acquire the card and start receiving post-release services. By removing a bureaucratic hurdle for parolees, this measure could help reduce recidivism.
