The eviction of mobile home residents happened by design. Zoning reform can prevent it.
Mobile home park residents have faced displacement because of land use regulations that have zoned the parks out of existence and made it difficult to build affordable housing. In Phoenix, for example, builders must have 10 acres on which to build a new mobile home park, which is almost impossible to find. And because of onerous zoning regulations, it’s difficult to develop multifamily housing in many areas, unless a developer buys a property that’s already zoned for it—thus the attraction of purchasing a mobile home park, which is de facto multifamily, rather than fighting with NIMBYs who don’t want renters in their midst. If these exclusionary zoning policies were revised so that multifamily developers had more reasonable options for where to build, it would help protect those living in mobile home parks. HB 2536, SB 1161 and SB 1163 would go far in addressing these zoning quandaries that block builders from addressing the housing crisis.
