Reyna Canales, who lives at Willow Mobile Home Park in San Pablo, says she begins to feel panicked at the start of each month. While she can expect her monthly utility bill statement to be posted on her front door from her landlord, she never knows whether there will be a separate notice of a rent increase waiting for her. The 43-year-old mother lives with her four young children, and her husband, who is the only source of income for the family after Canales was injured in a car accident last year.
Back in May, the family received a “Notice of Rent Increase,” stating that effective September 1, the couple’s rent would be $1,296.80—an $80 increase from what she was paying before. However, in October, they received another notice stating that their rent would be raised again on January 1, 2026. Only this time, the increase was for $300, which Canales said is more than what they can afford.
“I go to therapy [about this] because I can’t sleep with the worry of what will happen,” Canales said in Spanish. “The thought that maybe I’ll be on the street, or what would I do with my kids, not knowing what’s going to happen—especially because my husband doesn’t make enough to afford more expenses and such expensive ones—[makes] it really difficult.”
Several residents of Willow Mobile Home Park and Creekside Village Mobile Home Park shared similar stories about the sudden increase and asked the city to freeze the hike at a San Pablo City Council meeting in November. At the Dec. 15. meeting, the council voted in favor of a Mobile Home Assistance Program, which will provide a one-time grant of $1,000 per eligible mobile home household in order to help counteract mobile home park rent increases. Approximately 50 residents attended, and only six were able to speak during public comment—one of whom was Canales.
“The support you guys are wanting to give us only helps us a little,” Canales said to council members in Spanish. “What’s going to happen in the next few months? We’re working families, but we can’t keep going with such high rent.”
According to the program’s guidelines, it is “intended to support low-income, owner-occupied mobile home households in San Pablo facing extraordinary housing cost burdens.” There will be an application process for the assistance program that will open on January 6, 2026, and close on January 20—but only 150 households will be able to receive these funds, according to the guidelines. San Pablo has seven mobile home parks, with more than 450 spaces in the city. Approximately 31,000 people live in San Pablo and 60% of the total population is Latino.
Due to the unpredictability of rent increase amounts, Canales said that she and other residents are asking for additional protections through a mobile home rent stabilization ordinance. Other Bay Area cities such as Concord and San Jose, have similar ordinances, which protect mobile home residents from rent increases in excess.
Currently, the city of San Pablo does not have local rent control ordinances for mobile home parks or other tenancies.
Willow and Creekside are owned by Harmony Communities, which purchased the parks in 2018. Matthew Davies, owner of Harmony, a Stockton-based property management company that owns and operates multiple mobile home parks in California and other states, said via email that the $300 rent increase residents claim is happening is false.
“Every household immediately got a $300 credit, so the net increase is zero,” Davies wrote. “No one’s rent actually went up $300. Also, rents do not go up multiple times per year.”
The initial notice that Canales received on Sept. 19 stated that rent “will be increased to $1,596.80 effective January 1, 2026″ — a $300 increase. Another notice was sent out to Canales and other residents that same day explaining that the park would be issuing a rent credit equal to the rent increase amount and that their “monthly payments to the park are not changing at this time.”
When El Timpano asked Davies why Harmony increased the rent and then retracted it, he said that the letter residents received on Sept. 19th contained the explanation.
Another letter sent out to residents’ on Dec. 9 also explicitly stated that “no resident will be responsible for paying the additional $300” in January’s upcoming rent, and $300 will be “credited back to every resident’s account in its entirety.”
“The increase was noticed as a defensive measure to protect the long term viability of the property. We hope to leave the credit in place forever,” Davies said via email. “Well intentioned, but misguided progressive activists are pushing rent control measures that harm communities. It is a fact that our expenses go up at over 100% of inflation each year. Capping rent increases at 50% of inflation is a slow road to bankruptcy. We know because we are closing two parks across the state right now that are losing money on an annual basis due to long standing and draconian rent controls. We love the Willow Mobile Home Park and want it to operate as unsubsidized affordable housing for the next 30 years. We don’t want to be in a position where we would need to close the park.”
Canales said she and other residents were confused by the messaging, and that she is still expecting the rent increase to go into effect, as with prior rent increases throughout the years.
According to California’s Mobile Home Residency Law, under Civil Code §798.30, mobile home park management “shall give a homeowner written notice of any increase in his or her rent at least 90 days before the date of the increase.” But state law does not regulate the rent increase amount, and instead puts it on cities to decide that, since it is a “local control issue.” Harmony Communities has in the past opposed rent control ordinances in other cities and states where it owns mobile home parks, and has been involved in lawsuits over rent increases, evictions, and other issues. Davies said he supports alternative options to keep housing affordable.
“Rent controls do not solve the housing problem, only politicians that encourage building and cut the excessive red tape can solve the problem,” Davies said via email. “Both liberal and conservative economists agree that rent controls further limit supply and discourage new investment. It is the opposite of the solution that California needs.”
Canales and her husband bought their home in 2020 because the community was advertised as a place for families, and they were drawn in by the affordability after moving from Oakland. While the family owns their home, they pay to rent the land it’s on, which is owned by Harmony. Initially, their rent was $975 per month, which included water, trash and sewer bills. But after two months living at Willow, Canales said they were told by management that they needed to “pay bills like everybody else,” and the couple received their first increase.
She said that her husband spoke with the property manager about the unexpected utility charges, and their original, all-utilities-included rent amount was restored for several months. But when the couple moved to a different space in June of 2021, their utilities were separated out in a new lease. “[They] told me that it was a rule of the mobile home park that everybody had to pay their bills apart from the rent,” Canales said in Spanish. “So the rent bill went up, plus the utility bills, and since then they’ve been raising them by $80, $90, $100 a year,” Canales said.
According to documents shared by Canales and Davies, the rent increases ranged between $71 and $95 once per year over a five year period. When their utilities were permanently separated out in 2021, Canales and her husband began to pay approximately $108 per month, in addition to their rent, for water, sewer, and trash, to the company. This year Canales and her husband paid anywhere from $151 to $171 per month for water, sewer, and garbage, in addition to their rent.
Canales said that at first, she believed she was the only one experiencing increases. But when she and other residents got to talking in October, she realized that the majority of them were going through the same thing. Some were facing higher increases than others, and some were facing more frequent increases.
Rocio Quijano has lived at Willow Mobile Home Park with her 75-year-old mother, who the lease is under, since 2019. Quijano’s mother has also experienced rent increases during her time at Willow. In a letter to the San Pablo City Council, her mother, Ana Solorzano, outlined a period of no rent increases for two years, and then a $350 increase the third year. Quijano said that it’s been hard to understand the notices that the property manager leaves on residents’ doors because they’re all in English.
“My mom’s first language isn’t English and neither is mine,” Quijano said. “It’s really challenging to understand what’s going on and advocate for ourselves. I can only translate so much.” She says they received a 60-day eviction notice on October 30th, and will be evicted on December 30th of this month, due to having “too many plants in her yard.” Notices from Harmony to Solorzano from August and September outline violations of property maintenance with “unpermitted items” outside the home, including “a lot of clutter on porches outside the home–Fire Hazard,” and “an excessive amount of plants.”
Residents at both parks have begun organizing, with Linda Jackson at the forefront of this effort. Jackson, 73, has lived at Willow for five years and began to encourage residents to speak out during city council meetings once they received the notice in October. Rising Juntos, a community organization in Contra Costa County, has also been supporting the residents’ effort.
Councilmember Abel Pineda said during the Dec. 15 meeting that the one-time grant isn’t enough for mobile home park residents, and says he wants more support from his fellow council members to pass a rent control ordinance.
“When I heard their stories and their experiences, it was very hurtful to me,” Pineda said. “I have aunts, uncles, cousins, and even friends that I went to school with, they live in mobile homes,” he said. “I don’t feel capable of being able to turn my back. I want to respect their lives as hardworking people, contributors of this community, and long-term residents experiencing serious issues. I want to have the option, that if it’s necessary, to take action [through an ordinance].”
As Canales walked out of city hall on Monday evening, she said that while on the surface the resolution for the one time grant looked good, she was concerned about the longevity of the financial support the city was offering.
“In two to three months, what’s going to happen?” Canales said in Spanish. “The rent increases could keep happening and they won’t be able to give us more [support]. So we need an ordinance that will protect us further.”
