Mobile home parks aren’t wanted by city leaders

Jack Shoulders raises a good question (“Solution to SLO housing problem may be mobile,” Feb. 26). A large part of the answer is cultural.

Though we espouse low-cost housing, most of us don’t want low-income people living next door. Mobile homes are indeed the lowest cost form of quality housing, because they are built in factories, in quantity, consistently, using simple manufacturing procedures.

This was not always true. Some decades ago, trailers were low in cost because they were small and depreciated fast on rented lots. They were unregulated and some manufacturers built shoddy products.

Today, all are certified with national building codes. Millions have been built. That experience has evolved “manufactured homes,” as they are often called now, into the most advanced form of housing in the world, producing quality homes for half the cost per square foot of typical site construction.

But these new kids on the block are bucking centuries of tradition and regulation, as well as their own industry birthing pangs. About half of all new mobile homes are placed on private lots, mostly outside the reach of local zoning restrictions. The other half are placed in aging mobile home parks, replacing smaller homes that have become obsolete. Virtually no new parks are being built in cities like San Luis Obispo. They’re not wanted by the city elders, who speak for the will of the populace.

This story was originally published March 16, 2016 at 5:47 PM with the headline "Mobile home parks aren’t wanted by city leaders."