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Hayward City Leaders Push To Protect Mobile Home Parks From Development

HAYWARD (CBS SF) -- As property values skyrocket in the Bay Area, mobile home parks are being left in the dust, and landlords in an East Bay city might have to pay the price for pushing those low-rent tenants out.

Hayward's Eden Garden Mobile Home Park is a perfect example, with a brand new development right across the street.

Now, city leaders want to protect those low income families by making it almost impossible for land owners to sell mobile home parks to developers.

"Being a senior on a fixed income, I need things like rent control. I need the city to back me up when they want to sell and there's no place for me to go," Carol Hayes, a mobile home resident in Hayward said.

The city has nine parks, with more than five thousand people. If park owners sell, or shut down, they will have to pay moving costs, a 3-year subsidy for low-income families, and up to $50,000 to rezone the land under a new proposal.

Hayward City Councilman Greg Jones said he wants to protect housing affordability in his city, and voted for the ordinance.

"It is a poison pill to discourage that from happening. But, it doesn't prohibit it," he said.

But, some call the regulations unconstitutional and unnecessary.

"Any additional government policies that add to the cost of producing homes will resonate in higher home prices," David Start with the East Bay Association of Realtors said.

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