BILL ANALYSIS ------------------------------------------------------------ |SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | SB 951| |Office of Senate Floor Analyses | | |1020 N Street, Suite 524 | | |(916) 651-1520 Fax: (916) | | |327-4478 | | ------------------------------------------------------------ THIRD READING Bill No: SB 951 Author: Correa (D) Amended: As introduced Vote: 21 SENATE TRANSPORTATION & HOUSING COMMITTEE : 7-1, 3/23/10 AYES: Lowenthal, Huff, DeSaulnier, Kehoe, Oropeza, Pavley, Simitian NOES: Ashburn NO VOTE RECORDED: Harman SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : 8-1, 4/26/10 AYES: Kehoe, Alquist, Corbett, Denham, Leno, Price, Wolk, Yee NOES: Cox NO VOTE RECORDED: Walters, Wyland SUBJECT : Mobilehomes: park inspections and fees SOURCE : Author DIGEST : This bill extends the Department of Housing and Community Developments Mobilehome Park Maintenance Inspection Program until January 1, 2017. ANALYSIS : The Mobilehome Parks Act requires the Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) to regulate the construction, installation, use, maintenance, and occupancy of mobilehomes and mobilehome parks. CONTINUED SB 951 Page 2 Under the Mobilehome Park Maintenance (MPM) Inspection Program, existing law requires HCD or a local enforcement agency, until January 1, 2012, to inspect mobilehome parks proactively with a goal of inspecting at least five percent of the parks per year and a focus on those parks for which the enforcement agency has received complaints about serious health and safety violations. Existing law provides for HCD or a local enforcement agency, until January 1, 2012, to collect annually a per space fee of $4 to fund the MPM inspection program, $2 of which the mobilehome park owner may charge to individual homeowners. Existing law requires HCD to convene a task force every six months to provide input to HCD on the conduct and operation of the MPM inspection program. The task force includes mobilehome park owners, mobilehome owners, local enforcement agencies, and legislative representatives. HCD must report to the task force information on the number of parks and spaces that were inspected, the fees collected, the most common violations discovered, and the number of violations identified plus progress on correcting those violations. This bill: 1. Extends the sunset date on the MPM inspection program and related fees until 2017. 2. Requires that HCD report in writing to the MPM Task Force and that HCD include additional information in its report on: A. The number of violations issued to mobilehome owners, including the number that have been corrected, the number that are uncorrected, and progress in correcting the uncorrected violations. B. The number of violations issued to mobilehome park owners, including the number that have been corrected, the number that are uncorrected, and progress in correcting the uncorrected violations. SB 951 Page 3 C. Recommendations for statutory or administrative changes to the MPM program. Background AB 925 (O'Connell), Chapter 1125, Statutes of 1990, first created the MPM Inspection Program, and it required HCD or a local enforcement agency to inspect every mobilehome and every mobilehome park in the state once every five years. Because of delays created by the Northridge Earthquake and other factors, HCD was not able to complete the inspection of all mobilehome parks in the first five years. Therefore, the Legislature twice extended the program to require that all inspections be completed in eight-years, or by 1999. By 1999, HCD and local agencies had completed the inspection of all mobilehome parks. In 1999, SB 700 (O'Connell), Chapter 520, extended the MPM inspection program until January 1, 2007, and made some changes to the inspection program. In particular, SB 700 limited the inspection program to mobilehome parks that have a history of serious health and safety code violations and required inspections at least once every seven years. SB 700 limited the inspections in part because of the limited funding provided by the $4-fee that supports the MPM program. SB 106 (Dunn), 2005-06 Session, would have deleted the 2007 sunset date on the MPM inspection program and increased the existing $4-fee to $6 that pays for the inspections. The Governor vetoed SB 106 because of the fee increase, so in 2006, SB 1231 (Dunn), Chapter 644, and a companion bill, AB 2250 (Coto), Chapter 858, extended the sunset date from 2007 to 2012 but did not increase the inspection fee. FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes Local: No According to the Senate Appropriations Committee: Fiscal Impact (in thousands) Major Provisions 2009-10 2010-11 2011-12 Fund SB 951 Page 4 MPM inspection program $500 $1,000Special* (Program costs funded by fees) HCD report minor, absorbable costs Special* * Mobilehome Park Revolving Fund (funding level based on revenue from fees) SUPPORT : (Verified 4/27/10) California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation Golden State Mobilehome Owners League Western Center on Law and Poverty Western Manufactured Housing Communities Association ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : The author, who chairs the Senate Select Committee on Manufactured Homes and Communities, believes it is important to extend the MPM inspection program for another five years. He notes that California's nearly 4,000 mobilehome parks house approximately 550,000 residents and that the MPM program provides a complete scheduled inspection of those mobilehome parks, as contrasted with the complaint-driven inspections that otherwise occur. The author asserts that the MPM inspection program came about in 1990 because of concerns that the complaint inspection process by itself did not adequately address deteriorating health and safety conditions in some parks. As a result of the MPM program, HCD and local enforcement agencies, since 1991, have cited both park owners and homeowners for tens of thousands of health and safety violations, which as a result have been remedied. The author argues that some of these would not otherwise have been addressed. With the impending January 1, 2012 sunset date, the author reports interest from homeowners, HCD, and the park industry in extending the program another five years. JJA:mw 4/27/10 Senate Floor Analyses SB 951 Page 5 SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE **** END ****