SACRAMENTO – Senator Ben Allen (D-Pacific Palisades) celebrated the passage of SB 749 out of the Senate Housing Committee this afternoon to extend affordable housing protections for mobile home park tenants in the wake of a natural disaster.

“The Palisades Fire that ripped through my district in January exposed tragic vulnerabilities that threaten the ability for mobile home residents to return to their community after a natural disaster,” said Senator Allen. “The residents of the Palisades Bowl and Tahitian Terrace mobile home parks lost everything, and we need to do everything we can to help them.”

Mobile homes are the largest source of unsubsidized affordable housing in the nation, and provide important homeownership opportunities for many Californians. Opportunities to preserve unsubsidized affordable housing are especially important today when the state’s affordable housing funding is oversubscribed and our existing housing stock is under increasing threat from climate disaster.

SB 749 will expand and clarify existing affordable housing law to protect against the conversion of land from affordable mobile home park units to market-rate units after a disaster. If a park owner is seeking to close or change use of the land, this measure would require the owner to provide notice of opportunities to purchase at fair market rates to resident organizations and qualified entities certified by the Department of Housing and Community Development. The qualified entities must have a mission of preserving affordable housing units across California.

SB 749 will next be heard in Senate Judiciary in the coming weeks.