SACRAMENTO – State Sen. Connie M. Leyva (D-Chino) is pleased to announce that Gov. Jerry Brown signed two bills authored by the senator that will improve the lives of mobile home residents in California.

“SB 46 and SB 1130 will help to enhance the safety and quality of life of residents and families living in mobile homes in the Inland Empire and California,” Sen. Leyva said. “As the chair of the Senate Select Committee on Manufactured Communities, I have been proud to work with residents, local organizations and other groups over the last few years to continue to find ways to support California families living in mobile homes. I thank the governor for signing these two bills that will help to keep residents safe and in their homes.”

In 2018, Sen. Leyva authored the following two successful bills that earned strong bipartisan support in the Legislature:

· Senate Bill 46 extends the ability of the California Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD) to inspect mobilehome parks in California for health and safety violations an additional five years. HCD has previously identified accumulation of combustible materials, inadequate gas meters, and exposed live electrical parts as some of the top violations against mobile homes and mobile home parks. According to HCD, the program has seen roughly 75,000 violations corrected.

· Senate Bill 1130 helps keep California senior, blind, and disabled residents in their homes if and when they encounter financial difficulties. The measure specifically adds mobile homes to a state property tax postponement program so that eligible manufactured home owners can apply for postponement of their property taxes.

In California, at least one million people live in more than 5,000 registered manufactured housing communities / mobilehome parks.

Even more Californians live in unregistered manufactured housing communities, in individual manufactured homes on private land or in American Indian tribal communities.

Manufactured home communities are located everywhere from remote areas of the Sierra Nevada to inland regions like the Inland Empire and the Central Valley to expensive coastal counties and urban areas of Los Angeles County and Orange County.

While the price of homes, lots, and land vary widely across communities, mobile homes make up a significant portion of California’s limited affordable housing stock.

Both SB 46 and SB 1130 take effect on Jan. 1, 2019.