Mobile home owners forced out of parks to get larger payouts under new law

Residents of three mobile home parks facing imminent eviction could get bigger payouts from the state for leaving or moving their homes following a new law. The measure will increase several compensation caps, potentially putting thousands of additional dollars in residents’ pockets.

The maximum payout for being forced out of a mobile home park will rise from $7,500 to $12,500 for owners of single-wide homes, and from $12,500 to $20,000 for owners of double-wide residences. Owners will also be able to collect more moving expenses: as much as $6,000 (up from $4,000) for moving a mobile home to a new location; or up to 40% of the value of a mobile home abandoned in a park (up from 25%).

The money comes from an existing state account, the Mobile Home Relocation Fund, administered by the Arizona Department of Housing and funded by fines charged to landlords. The measure also allows homeowners in some cases to take as many as 60 days, up from 14, to complete certain required repairs.

“Mobile home residents are our neighbors, and deserve adequate compensation when they are forced to leave their homes behind. By increasing resources available through (the Arizona Department of Housing), we are taking immediate action to support these families,” Gov. Katie Hobbs wrote in a tweet on Thursday, after signing the bill.

Rep. Matt Gress, R-Phoenix, who sponsored the bill, applauded the new law.

“The legislation I introduced will provide much needed and immediate financial relief to Arizona families and seniors living in mobile homes who face an uncertain future about where they will live,” he wrote on Twitter.

“As someone who spent his childhood growing up in a single-wide mobile home (see below), this bill is personal to me as our family and many others living in mobile homes have few extra dollars to spare, especially in a life-altering event like these park closures,” he added in a subsequent post, adding a picture of his childhood home.

The new law will apply across the state, but the plight of residents in three mobile home parks helped bring the issue to the attention of lawmakers.

Gress himself connected the bill to the particular case of the Weldon Court, Las Casitas, and Periwinkle mobile home parks in Phoenix, all of which are set to close – forcing residents to leave – in May or June of this year.

Earlier this month, the Phoenix City Council considered measures that might have kept the mobile home parks at least temporarily in place, but the council last week declined to take action, after staffers argued the moves could have run afoul of state law.

That apparently hastened lawmakers’ work on the bill, which passed both chambers this week with an emergency clause, meaning it will take effect immediately. It received broad bipartisan support, passing the Senate with a 29-1 vote on Wednesday and clearing the House by a vote of 48-9 on Thursday, shortly before Hobbs signed it.

One of the parks, Periwinkle, is owned by Grand Canyon University, which purchased the property in 2016 in anticipation of future campus expansion. The for-profit school has defended itself against complaints about its plans to force out about 100 park residents to make way for new student housing.

Gress, who previously criticized Hobbs over her handling of housing issues, thanked a few local Democrats for their help with the bill, but not the governor. In posts online, he thanked Rep. Cesar Aguilar, D-Phoenix, Sen. Anna Hernandez, D-Phoenix, and Sen. Steve Kaiser, R-Phoenix.

Hobbs, for her part, took the chance to highlight the rest of her housing agenda, including a plan to put hundreds of millions of dollars into the state’s Housing Trust Fund.

So far this year, major housing bills have stalled in the legislature, including a wide-ranging bill sponsored by Kaiser that would eliminate a number of zoning regulations with the goal of reducing barriers to development.