Illegal rent increases at a mobile home park just outside the Santa Clara County Fairgrounds have San Jose housing department staff turning to the city attorney for help.
A Nov. 7 report by Housing Director Erik L. Soliván alleges the owners of Western Trailer Park, Stockton-based Harmony Communities, told residents earlier this year rent would go up after purchasing the trailer park in March. Despite multiple warnings from housing officials that the company’s rent increases are illegal because they exceed the city’s 3.14% maximum allowable increase for 2023-24, company representatives said San Jose’s rent policy doesn’t apply to them.
Harmony Communities Regional Manager Nick Ubaldi told San José Spotlight the RV lots at the trailer park are not the same thing as mobile home lots, and therefore should be exempt from the rent control policy. Western Trailer Park has 94 lots.
“Since the lots in question are designated and used for RVs, they do not meet the definition of mobile home lots,” Ubaldi told San José Spotlight. “City staff appear to not understand their own (policy) and state law. We are operating in full compliance with the (policy). There have been no illegal rent increases.”