San Jose mobile home residents shunned from rent increase talks 5%
By Joyce Chu0%
7/30/2026, 8:30:28 AM
BS Summary: This article contains 11 faulty reasoning types, including Confirmation Bias, Red Herring, and Availability Heuristic, with Negativity Bias as the most egregious example at 11.2% saturation with 120 hits. Analysis detected 503 faulty-reasoning hits from 1,072 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 17.8% and a BS Rank of 5% (21,809 of 22,840 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 95.50% of the article peer group.
Mobile home residents say San Jose is shutting them out of discussions regarding a proposed increase on space rent that could affect one of the city’s last affordable housing options.
In January, the San Jose City Council voted to delay a 10% space rent increase whenever a mobile home is sold after it was revealed the housing director was communicating exclusively with a representative of mobile home park owners on the proposed policy before it was publicized.
The council directed the Housing Department to engage in community meetings with residents and park owners to develop a mutual agreement, and return back to council in the fall.
However, park residents and those representing them said the department’s outreach has consisted of providing one-sided information with no opportunity for true dialogue.
“It’s very frustrating that they are trying to push this through again without proper debate,” San Jose Housing Commissioner Daniel Finn, who represents mobile home residents, told San José Spotlight.
The city has more than 10,000 mobile home spaces across 58 mobile home parks that fall under the rent policy, according to city data .
At San Jose Verde Mobile Home Park, space rent varies from $800 to $1,650 a month.
So far, San Jose has hosted three virtual meetings about the policy in English.
It’s also hosted two Spanish-language and two Vietnamese-language online meetings.
Finn said there was no opportunity for people to speak during the meetings.
Staff members have also hosted one in-person meeting that Finn knows of at Silver Crest mobile home park, but he was told that park owners only want residents who reside at the mobile home sites to participate.
“I’m a mobile home park representative, and they’re excluding me from these meetings,” Finn said.
“We requested that they tell us which owners and which managers made these requests.
Because we could come up with thousands of homeowners and residents that want a different perspective other than what the housing department is giving them.”
The next in-person community meeting open to the public will happen in September.
UPDATE: San Jose council delays mobile home rent increase
San Jose housing commissioners against mobile home rent increase
San Jose wants to raise rents in mobile home parks
Martha O’Connell, regional manager of Golden State Manufactured-Home Owners League, which also represents mobile home residents, said during the July 13 presentation housing staff repeatedly lowered her and other people’s hands on Zoom when they raised them to speak or ask questions.
Sarah Fields, spokesperson for the housing department, said taking questions through the written form online is meant to “mitigate disruptions associated with ‘Zoom bombing.
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“The housing department and all city departments are interested in hearing from residents,” Fields told San José Spotlight.
“During the online sessions, participants are able to submit written questions through the Zoom Q&A function, and staff make every effort to address all relevant questions during the meeting.
This approach is a standard practice among many municipalities and organizations to facilitate effective meeting management.”
Councilmember Bien Doan, whose District 7 has the most mobile home parks in the city at 3,067 spaces, declined to comment.
Councilmember Pamela Campos, whose District 2 has the second highest number of mobile home spaces at 2,711, said everyone in San Jose has the right to participate and engage with their communities and civic leaders.
“My office is committed to having this policy process be accessible, transparent and engaging,” she told San José Spotlight.
“Neighborhood voices and community input is essential, especially with something so personal and essential as housing.”
Under the existing rent policy, property owners are allowed a 3% to 7% rent increase on each parcel every year depending on the Consumer Price Index.
Anything more than that will require city approval, and they can’t increase rent to market rate prices except when the property is abandoned, the resident is evicted or when a sale falls through.
Mobile home park owners may request to have a “fair return hearing” to raise rents above the allowable amount when they feel they are not getting a fair return on the costs to maintain the park.
The city’s website states the changes are needed to make up for the rising utility and management costs for park owners, while protecting affordability for current residents.
“San Jose’s proposal is designed to balance the long-term health of the parks with stability and affordability for renters,” Alina Harway, housing department policy manager, told San José Spotlight.
Housing Commissioner Ryan Jasinsky, who represents mobile home park owners, did not respond to a request for comment.
Doug Johnson, executive director of Western Manufactured Housing Communities Association, which represents park owners, also did not respond to a request for comment.
At a previous Housing Commission meeting, Jasinksy said raising rent at the time of sale will protect existing mobile home residents.
He said it will allow owners to sustain the mobile home parks while reducing fair return hearings.
“You cannot properly prepare for that if you’re on a fixed income,” Jasinsky said at the meeting.
“If everyone wants these communities to be around for 20, 30, 40 more years, something has to change or the system will break.
We will see fair return hearings, we will see park sales.
We will see park closures.”
During presentations, housing officials have brought up a recent example where residents at Casa Alondra mobile home park experienced a 10% to 15% space rent increase last year due to a fair return hearing as a reason to support the proposed policy.
However, O’Connell said fair return hearings are rare.
In the past 20 years, the city has only had eight fair return hearings .
In the example of Case Alondra, she said it’s an outlier because the property is not owned by the operators, who were forced to raise rents to cover the large increase on their land lease.
She added the housing department uses the example at Casa Alondra to convince residents to accept the proposed policy.
“Housing well knows the 10% to 15% increase they cite to residents is a one-off due to a land lease issue, but they are hell bent on pushing these park owner desired changes,” O’Connell told San José Spotlight.
C ontact Joyce Chu at joyce@sanjosespotlight.com or @joyce_speaks on X.
The post San Jose mobile home residents shunned from rent increase talks appeared first on San José Spotlight .
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