If you Google “Harmony Communities California,” in between the corporate mobile home park owner/operator’s marketing gobbledygook, the headlines are not good.
The company recently purchased Del Cielo Estates in Orcutt—a 55-and-over mobile home community where seniors own their homes and rent the land they sit on—and informed residents that it was planning to make the park available to all ages. With a track record like Harmony Communities has, Del Cielo residents are facing dis-harmony up ahead.
“Don’t believe a single word from Harmony Communities,” exclaims an opinion piece in GV Wire, which alludes to the company using a fake spokesperson to respond to questions from The Business Journal about a mobile home park it purchased in Fresno before raising rents and evicting longtime residents.
“A story of affordable housing, corporate greed, and good ol’ American grit” is the second story in a two-part Pacific Sun series about how Harmony Communities sent mass eviction notices to RV Park of San Rafael residents and threatened to close the park after taking over management. “The reality is the land is worth much more than operating an RV park for affordable housing,” an unsigned letter Harmony sent to residents stated.
“Mobile home park owner threatens closure after Cotati passes regulation to protect senior residents there” comes from The Press Democrat about a decision the Cotati City Council made to approve a “senior mobile home park overlay zone” to preserve the Country Side Mobile Home Park for seniors only. Harmony Communities was planning to open the park up to all ages.
Nick Ubaldi, whose family owns Country Side and who works for Harmony, which manages the park, spoke up at the meeting. “The property value far exceeds its current use,” he said, according to The Press Democrat. “After tonight’s vote we have decided to immediately begin the closure process for Country Side Mobile Home Park.”
Wow. This Stockton-based corporation that lords over more than 30 mobile home parks is unbelievable. The pattern is as old as America: Corporate entity purchases affordable housing, pulls the rug out from the residents, and the battle plays out in court. It brings so much Harmony to its communities … not.
Our friend Ubaldi also happens to be the manager for Del Cielo in Orcutt. Will its senior residents face a different fate in their battle to maintain affordable housing?
The company is trying to put a good foot forward this time around. Maybe. For starters, statements to the Sun didn’t come from a fake person. Baby steps, amirite?
Ubaldi said the company is open to discussing options if the overwhelming majority of Del Cielo’s residents want the park to remain 55-and-older. He also said that the county’s Mobile Home Rent Stabilization Ordinance would prevent Harmony from raising rents—although that didn’t stop the company in the case of the RV Park of San Rafael, where the city had to sue the operator for not complying with its rent control ordinance.
Ubaldi said the only thing that would change in Del Cielo is that the park would be open to all ages. But park residents don’t want to take any chances and are asking the Santa Barbara County Board of Supervisors for an overlay zone of their own. I’m sensing eviction notices and a lawsuit ahead.
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