BILL ANALYSIS
SENATE TRANSPORTATION & HOUSING COMMITTEE BILL NO: AB 1964
SENATOR ALAN LOWENTHAL, CHAIRMAN AUTHOR: torres
VERSION: 2/17/10
Analysis by: Carrie Cornwell FISCAL: yes
Hearing date: June 29, 2010
SUBJECT:
Mobilehomes: park inspections and fees
DESCRIPTION:
This bill extends the Department of Housing and Community
Development's Mobilehome Park Maintenance Inspection Program
until January 1, 2019.
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.
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
with 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
AB 1964 (TORRES) Page 2
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 extends the sunset date on the MPM inspection program
and related fees until 2019.
COMMENTS:
1.Purpose . The MPM program provides a complete, scheduled
inspection of mobilehome parks, as contrasted with the
complaint-driven inspections that otherwise occur. The
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. Without the
MPM program, many 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. This bill extends the
sunset on the MPM program and its associated fees through
January 1, 2019.
2.Chaptering amendments . This bill has chaptering conflicts
with SB 951 (Correa). In order to resolve these conflicts,
the author will need to make chaptering amendments either in
committee or at a later date.
RELATED LEGISLATION
SB 951 (Correa) extends the Mobilehome Park Maintenance
Inspection Program until January 1, 2017, makes minor changes to
the information that HCD must report to the MPM task force, and
requires that report to be in writing. That bill passed this
committee on March 23rd by a 7 - 1 vote. Set for hearing in the
Assembly Housing and Community Development Committee on June
30th.
AB 1964 (TORRES) Page 3
Assembly Votes:
Floor: 68 - 1
Appr: 16 - 0
H&CD: 8 - 0
POSITIONS: (Communicated to the Committee before noon on
Wednesday,
June 23, 2010)
SUPPORT: California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation
Golden State Mobilehome Owners League
Western Center on Law and Poverty
OPPOSED: None received.