BILL ANALYSIS                                                                                                                                                                                                    



                                                                  SB 951
                                                                  Page  1

          Date of Hearing:   June 30, 2010

               ASSEMBLY COMMITTEE ON HOUSING AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT
                                 Norma Torres, Chair
                  SB 951 (Correa) - As Introduced:  February 4, 2010

           SENATE VOTE  :   24-8
           
          SUBJECT  :   Mobilehome Parks Act.

           SUMMARY  :   Extends the sunset on the Mobilehome Park Maintenance  
          (MPM) inspection program and its related fees until January 1,  
          2017, and makes minor changes to related reporting requirements.  
           Specifically,  this bill  :   

          1)Extends the sunset date on the MPM inspection program and its  
            related fees until January 1, 2017.

          2)Requires that the Department of Housing and Community  
            Development (HCD) to include the following information it its  
            semiannual reports to the MPM task force:

             a)   The number of violations issued to mobilehome owners and  
               mobilehome park owners, including the number that have been  
               corrected, the number that remain uncorrected, and progress  
               in correcting the uncorrected violations; and

             b)   Recommendations for statutory or administrative changes  
               to the MPM program.

          3)Requires that HCD's semiannual reports to the MPM task force  
            be in writing.

           EXISTING LAW  

          1)Requires HCD to regulate the construction, installation, use,  
            maintenance, and occupancy of mobilehomes and mobilehome parks  
            (Health and Safety Code Section 18200, et seq.). 

          2)Gives local agencies the option of assuming enforcement  
            authority of the state's mobilehome codes and regulations  
            within their jurisdictions through agreement with HCD (Health  
            and Safety Code Section 18300). 

          3)Under the MPM inspection program, requires HCD or a local  








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            enforcement agency, until January 1, 2012, to inspect  
            mobilehome parks proactively with a goal of inspecting at  
            least five percent of parks per year and a focus on those  
            parks for which the enforcement agency has received complaints  
            about serious health and safety violations (Health and Safety  
            Code Section 18400.1).   

          4)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 (Health and Safety Code  
            18502).

          5)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 amount of fees collected and expended, the most  
            common violations discovered, and the number of violations  
            identified plus progress on correcting those violations.  
            (Health and Safety Code Section 18400.3)

           FISCAL EFFECT  :   Unknown

           COMMENTS  :   

          AB 925 (O'Connell), Chapter 1125, Statutes of 1990, first  
          created the MPM inspection program, and 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.  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, Statutes of 1999,  
          extended the MPM inspection program until January 1, 2007, and  
          made some changes to the program.  In particular, SB 700 limited  
          the inspection program to mobilehome parks that had a history of  
          serious health and safety code violations and required these  
          inspections at least once every seven years.  SB 700 limited the  








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          inspections in part because of the limited funding provided by  
          the $4 fee that supports the MPM program.  About one-third of  
          mobilehome parks in the state were inspected under the MPM  
          program between 2000 and SB 700's sunset date of January 1,  
          2007.  SB 700 also created the MPM inspection task force and  
          required it to meet once a year.

          SB 106 (Dunn) of 2005 would have deleted the 2007 sunset date on  
          the MPM inspection program and increased the existing $4 fee to  
          $6 to for the inspections.  The Governor vetoed SB 106 because  
          of the fee increase, so in 2006, SB 1231 (Dunn), Chapter 644,  
          Statutes of 2006, extended the sunset date on the MPM inspection  
          program until January, 1, 2012, and increased the frequency of  
          the MPM task force meetings to every six months, but did not  
          increase the fee.  Also in 2006, AB 2250 (Coto), Chapter 858,  
          Statutes of 2006, set the goal that five percent of parks would  
          be inspected under the MPM program each year.

          The MPM program provides a complete, scheduled inspection of  
          mobilehome parks, as contrasted with the complaint-driven  
          inspections that otherwise occur.  The program was created  
          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 likely 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.  
           SB 951 would extend the sunset on the MPM program and its  
          associated fees through January 1, 2017, and make minor changes  
          to the information HCD must provide on a biennial basis to the  
          MPM Task Force.

           

          Similar Legislation
           SB 951 is similar to AB 1964, which passed out of this committee  
          on April 14, 2010, by a vote of 8-0.  AB 1964 extends the sunset  
          on the MPM inspection program and related fees through January  
          1, 2019. 

           Committee Amendment








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           Extend the sunset on the MPM inspection program and related fees  
          through January 1, 2019, to avoid chaptering out issues with AB  
          1964.

           REGISTERED SUPPORT / OPPOSITION  :

           Support 
           
          California Rural Legal Assistance Foundation
          Golden State Manufactured-Home Owners League
          Western Center on Law and Poverty
          Western Manufactured Housing Communities Association

           Opposition 
           
          None on file

           Analysis Prepared by  :    Anya Lawler / H. & C.D. / (916)  
          319-2085