Resident group urges Santa Maria to adopt enforceable mobile-home rent stabilization

At the city council meeting on Dec. 2, resident advocate Gary Hall urged Santa Maria to replace the 2020 model lease with a uniform, mandatory, enforceable mobile-home rent stabilization program and to extend protections that prevent senior-park conversions.

Hall, who identified himself as representing the North Santa Barbara County Manufactured Homeowners Team, told the council that "Affordable mobile home living is vanishing here in Santa Maria and all across the state." He said the council passed a motion three years, five months and 26 days earlier to improve or replace the model lease and that prior efforts to update the lease had failed.

Hall also asked the council to adopt the same senior-park conversion protections offered in neighboring jurisdictions, citing the recent county action that prevented a conversion at Del Cielo Senior Mobile Home Park. He said Community Development staff have been researching the issue and residents are "anxious to see the research soon emerge as a new or revised ordinance."

The council did not take action on the request at the meeting; staff indicated the Community Development Department is researching possible changes. No formal referral, ordinance text or timeline was presented to the council during the public-comment period.

Dr. Dionne Nielsen Price also spoke during public comment to invite residents to a Jan. 23, 2026 commemoration, but her remarks were not related to housing policy.

Next steps: the transcript indicates Community Development staff are researching options; any formal ordinance or council action would appear on a future agenda if staff brings a draft for council consideration.