City Council Votes to Protect Mobile Home Residents

Greg Casar (Photo by John Anderson)

As a measure to protect existing affordable housing, City Council on June 20 rezoned nine mobile home parks around the city, containing more than 450 units, specifically for that residential use (i.e., MH zoning). This continued a citywide effort to protect more than 800 units in locations where landowners could redevelop under existing zoning and displace residents with little recourse.

Council, which kicked off this initiative with a resolution approved last September, voted unanimously to approve the rezonings – mostly on consent, though some were opposed by the owners, by neighbors via a valid petition, or by their neighborhood planning contact teams. City planning staff identified 1,100 units in parks that did not have MH zoning; 291 of these are near Austin-Bergstrom Airport and thus cannot be zoned residential (though the homes can remain there). Earlier in June, Council approved rezoning to protect 241 units in cases heard by the Zoning and Platting Com­mission; the June 20 cases, located in areas with neighborhood plans, were heard by the Planning Commission. Two cases remain to be finalized at the August 8 meeting following Council's return from summer break.

Council Member Greg Casar, who has prioritized preserving mobile home parks in his District 4 and throughout the city since his election in 2014, said the cases should change the way the city views Austin's housing mix. "In the past, folks did not see mobile homes as an important housing type to keep in the city limits," Casar told the Chronicle. "But the tide has shifted. As part of our land development code rewrite, we want to legalize putting mobile homes anywhere in the city that's residential."

For Jennifer Salazar, who has lived at the North Lamar Mobile Home Park for most of her life, the zoning change means stability and peace of mind for her family. A common fear of park residents is that an aging mobile home might prevent them from being admitted into a new park. "It's like we own our homes, but we could just be kicked off the land they sit on with little notice," Salazar told us. "We were like renters, but now we have more protection from being kicked out."

Many at the June 20 meeting who voiced opposition to the zoning cited the poor condition of some of the units. Adele Loessberg, treasurer of the Old Town Condominiums, about a half mile from the Patton Courts Mobile Home Park, said the park is "a slum, basically." She added that its owners are "exploiting people who don't have any money" by making them "live in substandard housing."

Gabby Garcia, who has worked with Building and Strengthening Tenant Action (BASTA) to increase tenant protections across the city, acknowledged that some homes are in poor condition. "But it's more complicated than that," she explained to us. "Mobile homes and parks allow people to own a home, even though they wouldn't normally be able to do that. Maybe it needs repairs, but the home is theirs." She said that most of the residents she worked with on the campaign were not interested in moving.

Garcia said the next steps for BASTA would be monitoring future zoning change requests by landowners and beginning to work in some parks to develop cooperatives that could lead to group ownership of the land, along with individual ownership of the housing units. Casar also told us his office is looking at how the city can help mobile home residents gain ownership of their parks.