This week, more than 1,600 residents of Westwinds Mobile Home Park, the largest in San Jose, received notice that they could be displaced by August 2022 as the owners want to evict residents so that the land can be used for redevelopment.
The Bay Area's short supply of houses and expensive land have spawn deals with deep pocket real estate developers to bring conversion of mobile home parks to high-end housing or commercial properties. Some Bay Area mobile home parks have been threatened or closed in recent years. This has deepen the crisis of the lack of affordable housing in the Bay Area and the displacement of the middle class and low-income families.
With potential huge backlash for both Mayor Sam Liccardo and Councilman Lan Diep, representative of District 4 where Westwinds is located, they held a press conference yesterday at the mobile home park. They promptly announced a citywide proposal that would offer better protection of the mobile home parks from redevelopment by imposing higher review standards and require city council approval for any redevelopment project.
Councilman Lan Diep stated: " This is personal to me and I will try to do everything to protect the park".
Many residents afterward went to hear Huy Tran, an affordable housing advocate and labor legal counselor, talked about his fight for affordable housing and the real story behind Westwinds Mobile Home Park. Representatives of State Assemblyman Kansen Chu and Congressman Rho Khana were there. Former Assemblywoman Sally Lieber and other elected officials from cities within Santa Clara County also were on hand to speak about the issues.
In 2016, the City Council approved a one year moratorium on mobile home park conversion. In 2018, to replace the moratorium, Councilmen Sergio Jiminez, Raul Peralez and Don Rocha proposed a land use designation exclusively for mobile home parks in order to help preserve affordable housing for the city. They specifically sought to protect Westwinds along with another park. However, Councilman Lan Diep and 5 other council members refused and asked for further review. Basically, they voted it down.
Huy Tran, also a candidate for city council in D4, wants to reinstate the moratorium for so long as it takes to create a Mobile Home Designation for city general plan and strengthen provisions of city ordinances for protection against unjustified evictions.
Many residents attended Huy Tran's event are not convinced Lan Diep has sincere intention. To them it might be just another political maneuvering that will ultimately leave them at the short end of the stick a few years down the road.
One resident wonders out loud whether Lan Diep is just buying time to get elected in 2020 and then business as usual for the city council with the one -vote majority has often showed their preference for real estate developer over affordable housing ?
Lan Diep has a trust issue with many residents of D4 and this is just one example.
