San Jose mobile home park residents report retaliation after organizing for tenants’ rights

By John Ramos

As the competition and the price for housing continue to climb, longtime residents in mobile home parks are in a difficult spot.  

Many own their houses but must pay rising rents for the spaces they occupy. Despite San Jose’s rent control laws, one group of park residents feels they are being retaliated against for trying to stand up for their rights.

The San Jose Mobile Home and RV Park is definitely showing its age. Many of the mobile homes and RV’s look worn and a large majority of the low-income residents speak little, if any, English. But there are some new small modular homes that have been added to the property that can fetch a lot more money.

“With these tiny homes, now they’re selling them for about $150,000, plus you pay the fee of the space,” said resident Maria Munoz.  “So, making $2,000 versus $900? Of course, they want to kick us out.”

Munoz said it all started a few years ago when she bought a newer trailer for her space, and she said the site manager tried to pressure her into signing a new lease at a higher rate.

“And I said, nope, that’s not right, that’s not legal,” she said. “So, she got upset and that’s how I started receiving the notices.”

Seven-day notices are given to residents to correct some violations of the park rules. Three notices in a year’s time and the landlord has the right to evict a tenant.  

One of Munoz’s notices cited a cat tree on her porch that she placed for the feral kittens who live in the area. 

But Munoz said things really began getting contentious when she started a park association group.  There was a meeting sometime last April, and Alma Bailon attended it.

“As soon as I finished and came to my home, the manager was already here waiting for me. The notice said that I had to remove the carport. That I had seven days to remove the carports on my property,” said Bailon through a translator. “So, that’s how the problem started. As soon as she saw me in the meeting, that’s when she started telling me, ‘You need to remove the carports, you need to clean your car.’ So, everything started when she saw me during the meeting.”

Bailon is living in a home owned by the company, Monte Cristo Communities.  She is already in a rent dispute over mold and maintenance problems with the building.  

But she, too, has received three notices, including one to remove the plants in front of her house, although a lot of homes in the complex also have them.  

Monte Cristo’s owner, Brock Kaveny, was not available to go on camera, but over the phone, he said the company has no ability to force people to sign away their rent control rights.  

He said the seven-day notices are given to correct violations as a way of protecting the property in accordance with state and local laws.  

He denied that the company was targeting those in the association and, while he seemed surprised to learn about the number of newer modular units for sale, he said the company has “zero plans to bring new homes into the community.”  

San Jose’s current rent control law caps rate increases at 3% to 7%, tied to the annual Consumer Price Index. Munoz said she thinks that is the real motivation behind all of this.

“Yeah, we’ve always been given that 3%,” she said, “but if they kick me out, they will raise the rent double, triple, whatever they want.”

Monte Cristo Communities purchased the mobile home park in 2019.  The following year, state law was changed to remove a loophole that excluded homeowners from rent control protections if they agreed to sign a long-term lease.  

For many years, mobile homes flew quietly under the affordability radar.  But they are increasingly being seen by companies as valuable investment opportunities as the competition for homes gets ever more intense.