{"id":940868,"date":"2026-07-17T10:16:32","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T10:16:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/940868\/"},"modified":"2026-07-17T10:16:32","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T10:16:32","slug":"mobile-homes-an-overlooked-refuge-of-affordability-are-disappearing-in-l-a-residents-fight-to-stay","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/940868\/","title":{"rendered":"Mobile homes, an overlooked refuge of affordability, are disappearing in L.A. Residents fight to stay."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The small patch of dirt encircling Carmen Silverio Guardado\u2019s home bears fruit \u2014 lots of it. There are pomegranates, guavas, dragon fruit and nectarines. She also grows oregano and lemongrass, with which she brews into a tea to soothe stomach issues.<\/p>\n

All of this Silverio Guardado and her husband cultivate beside the two-bedroom mobile home they have owned for 12 years.<\/p>\n

They have no plans to move \u2014 mostly because they could not afford to live anywhere else.<\/p>\n

Mobile homes are the cheapest form of housing in California. On average, owners spend about $1,200 a month on housing<\/a>, hundreds of dollars less than apartment renters and traditional homeowners, according to U.S. Census Bureau data.<\/p>\n

But in a housing crisis where the working solution is to build, build, build<\/a>, some of the area\u2019s least expensive housing has been steadily dismantled over the decades. Since 1986, according to data from the state housing department, Los Angeles County has lost roughly 200 mobile home parks, or one-fourth of its stock.<\/p>\n

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1.<\/strong> Ian Herrera, 6, gives his soccer ball to his sister Genesis, 12, before walking into his home at the Florence Village Mobile Home Park on July 14 in Bell, Calif. (Gina Ferazzi \/ Los Angeles Times) 2.<\/strong> Maribel Herrera prepares dinner for her family of four inside her mobile homein Bell, Calif. (Gina Ferazzi \/ Los Angeles Times) <\/p>\n

In some more urban parts of the county, that decline has been even more pronounced. Santa Monica, for instance, which once boasted 11 mobile home parks, has only two.<\/p>\n

Despite state and local policies aimed at making it harder to redevelop these parks, sky-high housing prices have put huge pressure on park owners to sell.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is the best naturally occurring affordable housing that there is,\u201d said Stephanie Hawke, associate research director of land use and supply at the Terner Center for Housing Innovation at UC Berkeley. \u201c[But] the placement of new parks is nearly impossible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mobile homes in California house some of the lowest-income residents and some of the oldest<\/a>, many of whom live on fixed incomes.<\/p>\n

At Flamingo Gardens Trailer Park in Carson, Silverio Guardado and her husband, Mariano Silverio Mendoza, pay roughly $430 a month to rent the land beneath their home. That represents about 40% of what they receive monthly in Social Security benefits.<\/p>\n

When asked if this was workable, they both laughed. \u201cM\u00e1s o menos,\u201d they said.<\/p>\n

\"The <\/p>\n

The sun sparkles through the trees at Bell Mobile Home Park on July 14. The city of Bell plans to close the mobile home park, saying it will offer financial support to residents to relocate. But residents interviewed by The Times say they don\u2019t know where they\u2019ll find comparably affordable housing.<\/p>\n

(Gina Ferazzi\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

While mobile home owners hold the title to their house, they don\u2019t own the land beneath it and pay a monthly fee to rent it from a park owner. This creates a system, experts say, where mobile home owners may be forced to move when a park is sold, either leaving the home behind or paying thousands to move it to another park \u2014 that is, if they can find an empty space in the shrinking market.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Mobile home parks] exist in this kind of liminal space,\u201d Hawke said. \u201cWe don\u2019t put traditional stick-built homeowners in this same kind of precarious situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

In urban areas in particular, land costs have become so high that it simply doesn\u2019t make financial sense to run a mobile home park.<\/p>\n

\u201c[Park owners] want to develop something that can make more money for them,\u201d said Maria Aguilar, a mobile home owner in Pico Rivera and a volunteer with the Golden State Manufactured-Home Owners League, a statewide organization that lobbies for policies to protect mobile home owners. \u201cMaybe apartments or condos.\u201d<\/p>\n

A tale of two cities: Carson<\/b><\/p>\n

If you want to live in a mobile home park, look to Carson.<\/p>\n

The city is home to just under 100,000 people and boasts one of the highest concentrations of mobile home parks in the region. About 8% of the city\u2019s occupied houses<\/a> are mobile homes, compared to 1.5% in all of Los Angeles County.<\/p>\n

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1.<\/strong> A decorative flamingo and American flag are viewed at Flamingo Garden Mobile Home Park on July 9. Mobile home parks in Carson are among the last refuges of affordable housing for many residents. (Allen J. Schaben \/ Los Angeles Times) 2.<\/strong> An aerial view of Flamingo Garden Mobile Home Park and surrounding development. (Allen J. Schaben \/ Los Angeles Times) 3.<\/strong> Resident Lezanne Bell adjusts decorations while pruning her plants in front of her single wide mobile home (Allen J. Schaben \/ Los Angeles Times) <\/p>\n

Some of the parks in Carson have been around since the 1970s, a decade that marked something of a golden age of mobile home production, when manufacturers across the country were churning them out at a historic rate.<\/a> <\/p>\n

Builders were meeting a demand that had been on the rise since the Great Depression.<\/p>\n

In the 1950s the federal government began offering loans to fund the opening of mobile home parks, just as manufacturers began building wider, more spacious homes, according to Esther Sullivan, the author of \u201cManufactured Insecurity: Mobile Home Parks and Americans\u2019 Tenuous Right to Place.\u201d In 1970, President Nixon recognized mobile homes as an important housing option for middle-income families, calling it \u201cthe only kind of housing they can reasonably afford.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 1979, the young city of Carson adopted rent control for its parks, which would lead to some of the cheapest rents in the county, but also put more pressure on landlords to sell.<\/p>\n

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Flamingo Garden Mobile Home Park resident Mariano Silverio Mendoza, who lives off of Social Security benefits, takes a break to talk to visitors as he waters plants in front of his mobile home in Carson on July 9. Despite having a high concentration of mobile home parks compared to nearby cities, Carson has been losing them at a rapid rate.<\/p>\n

(Allen J. Schaben\/Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

Residents interviewed by the Times said they pay anywhere from $400 to $700 a month in land rent, compared to $1,500 a month in nearby cities.<\/p>\n

That includes Glenn White who, now in his 70s, has lived in a double-wide trailer at Park Avalon Mobile Home Park for nearly 30 years. <\/p>\n

White paid $28,000 for his home in the late 1990s, a fraction of what the homes cost now. <\/p>\n

With the house paid off in full, White said he currently pays about $600 a month in rent \u2014 in a county where the median monthly housing cost tops $2,000.<\/p>\n

\u201cI kiss the ground every day,\u201d White said.<\/p>\n

But with less profits to be made from them, mobile home parks in the city have closed at a faster rate than in the state. Since 1980, the number of parks has fallen from 36 to 20.<\/p>\n

Danny Fernandez and his brother help their aging parents with the day-to-day operations of Flamingo Gardens. He said over the years he and his parents have received offers to buy the park. But despite some \u201cincredible\u201d offers, they haven\u2019t budged.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t plan to go anywhere,\u201d Fernandez said.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a different story around the corner, where residents of Imperial Avalon Mobile Estates got word in 2019 that their park would be sold, razed and developed into apartments and shops.<\/p>\n

Jeff Steiman, one of about 300 mobile home owners at the park, said he and others spent years fighting the city and the developer, trying to get payouts to match what their homes were worth. Residents, he said, were elderly, had health issues and often lived in mobile homes so old that moving them was not an option.<\/p>\n

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1.<\/strong> A view of the sign at Park Avalon Mobile Estates in Carson. (Allen J. Schaben \/ Los Angeles Times) 2.<\/strong> A person walks by the sign at Bel-Aire Mobile Home Park in Carson. (Allen J. Schaben \/ Los Angeles Times) 3.<\/strong> A flamingo windchime and a decorative piece of art from Guadalajara, Mexico hang in front of the entrance of the home of Flamingo Garden Mobile Home Park resident Mariano Silverio Mendoza in Carson. (Allen J. Schaben \/ Los Angeles Times) <\/p>\n

Faced with having to relocate, residents worried about finding comparably cheap housing. Four people interviewed by The Times said that at least one resident died by suicide, tormented by the prospect of losing his home.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is why buying a mobile home is dangerous,\u201d Steiman said. \u201cBecause it\u2019s still private land.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2023, Carson adopted new rules intended to protect against the redevelopment of mobile home parks. The city now has a special land designation for parks. If an owner wants to build something other than a park, they would need to rezone the land, a process that can be costly and time-consuming.<\/p>\n

The story of Bell<\/b><\/p>\n

Even when the government owns the park, it\u2019s not safe from a sale.<\/p>\n

In Bell, nearly 300 residents at two mobile home parks learned last year their parks would be sold and they would need to move.<\/p>\n

In 1995, the city of Bell purchased the parks after residents complained of annual large rent hikes. Officials said the city wanted to ensure low-income residents could afford to stay. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re not profit-motivated,\u201d city administrator Robert Rizzo told the L.A. Times. <\/a> Rizzo was later sentenced<\/a> to 12 years in state prison for dipping into city coffers to pay employees, including himself, exorbitant salaries.<\/p>\n

But now Bell says it can no longer afford to operate the mobile home parks. City officials declined to answer questions and directed The Times to a city-run website.<\/p>\n

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1.<\/strong> Resident Shirley Sanchez has lived in the Bell Mobile Home Park for 33 years and thought this would be her forever home. (Gina Ferazzi \/ Los Angeles Times) 2.<\/strong> Flamingo Garden Mobile Home Park resident Elena Macias, right, greets her neighbor, Mariano Silverio Mendoza, as he waters plants in front of his mobile home in Carson. (Allen J. Schaben \/ Los Angeles Times) 3.<\/strong> A youngster walks inside the gated pool at Bell Mobile Home Park on July 14 in Bell, Calif. According to residents, the pool has been closed more than it\u2019s been open. (Gina Ferazzi \/ Los Angeles Times) <\/p>\n

On the website and in fliers sent to residents, the city says it spends $1.5 million a year to maintain the parks and that taxpayers are effectively subsidizing low land rents.<\/p>\n

Yudith Meza spent part of her early adulthood living with her parents in their mobile home in Bell, in one of the parks slated to close. Her parents, who are in their 70s, still live in the home.<\/p>\n

Meza, now married with two kids and living nearby, said her parents provide childcare four times a week. She worries what will happen if they\u2019re forced to move farther away in search of housing to match the $800 a month rent they currently pay.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow do you ask people to move?\u201d Meza said.<\/p>\n

While California law requires park owners to provide relocation assistance to mobile home owners when a park closes, it\u2019s often hard to find a comparable option.<\/p>\n

\"a <\/p>\n

Victoria Reta, a resident of the Bell Mobile Home Park for 14 years, waters her plants and tends to her caged birds in front of her home on July 14 in Bell, Calif.<\/p>\n

(Gina Ferazzi \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n

Meza said when she learned of the impending closure, she and her parents called around to neighboring mobile home parks. They were quoted upward of $20,000 to move the mobile home and told by parks that they wouldn\u2019t accept homes built more than a decade ago; Meza estimates her parent\u2019s home is more than 50 years old.<\/p>\n

Mobile home owners have appealed to elected officials outside the city to put a stop to it. In January, Los Angeles County Supervisor Janice Hahn sent a letter <\/a>to the city urging it to do away with its plans to close the mobile home parks.<\/p>\n

But in its public notifications about the closure, Bell appears to be going forward with the closures.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The small patch of dirt encircling Carmen Silverio Guardado\u2019s home bears fruit \u2014 lots of it. There are…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":940869,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[5123],"tags":[6286,1582,276,46018,2451,378877,17819,7065,2961,224,5337,138968,378875,9105,46750,6976,6141,11449,1628,378876],"class_list":["post-940868","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-los-angeles","tag-bell","tag-ca","tag-california","tag-carson","tag-city","tag-glenn-white","tag-house","tag-housing","tag-la","tag-los-angeles","tag-losangeles","tag-mobile-home","tag-mobile-home-park","tag-month","tag-owner","tag-parent","tag-park","tag-resident","tag-year","tag-yudith-meza"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116934805420029872","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/940868","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=940868"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/940868\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/940869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=940868"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=940868"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=940868"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}