Hundreds of San Jose mobile home residents get eviction warning

As climbing property values and fast-moving development sweep through the Bay Area, up to 1,600 residents of the Westwinds Mobile Home Park in north San Jose are fearing displacement over a potential redevelopment plan.

Residents of San Jose’s largest mobile home park are caught in the middle of a hot dispute between the property owners and the operators of the park about its long-term future. Homeowners received warning letters on Friday saying they may be forced to move by August 2022, touching off widespread anxiety and fear.

Earlier last week, management company MHC Operating sued the property owners, Nicholson Family Partnership, claiming the owners want to illegally push residents out on the street. The Nicholson family, with two centuries of roots in the Bay Area, say they’re trying to protect residents from dislocation.

The dispute highlights the extreme pressures the soaring Bay Area real estate market puts on affordable housing — and could result in a lengthy legal dispute entangling state and local officials. But both sides rushed to assure residents they are sensitive to the interests of mobile home owners.

MHC said in a statement they want to continue running Westwinds. “Displacing residents without cause or justification is contrary to the way we do business, and our lawsuit is the first step in opposing the Nicholson Family Partnership’s outrageous demands,” the company said.

The family partnership called the suit meritless and blamed the management company for stoking fear in the community.

“The well-being and stability of the Westwind Mobile Home Park residents is our paramount priority,” Bruce Nicholson, co-manager of the partnership, said in a statement. “MHC has been unwilling to collaborate to find a long-term solution for the tenants, taking the unfortunate position that it has no obligation whatsoever to its tenants or to us when the land leases expire.”

No redevelopment or rezoning proposals for the property have been submitted, according to San Jose city officials. Any redevelopment would require city council approval and likely relocation assistance.

City Councilmember Lan Diep, who represents the area, said the city was concerned about protecting the rights of existing homeowners in the park. City officials held two public hearings in the fall to discuss changing zoning on the property to preserve its status as a mobile home park. The proposal has not come before the city council.

San Jose has relatively little land to develop for new housing and “mobile homes are the last vestiges of affordable housing in our city,” he said.

About 50 years ago, the Nicholson family leased property it owned to a local developer to build Westwinds. The family partnership signed a 25-year agreement with a property management company in 1997. MHC, a subsidiary of a large, Chicago-based owner of mobile home parks, has managed the park for more than two decades. The agreement expires Aug. 31, 2022.

The Nicholson family said it has no involvement in the ownership or operations of the park, and has no desire to remove residents.

The news of a possible eviction shocked residents. Some have lived in the community since the 1970s, and many are older, disabled or on fixed incomes.

But the development near Zanker Road and Highway 237 has recently become a haven for young tech families, with new, spacious three-bedroom homes and Teslas and Mercedes in driveways.

Westwinds is San Jose’s largest mobile home park and the fourth largest in the state, with 723 homes, according to the suit filed in Santa Clara County Superior Court. Roughly four in 10 residents have spent more than 10 years in the park.

The median household income in the community is $61,500 — about 60 percent of the median income for the surrounding neighborhoods. And the homes cost just a fraction of the typical single family house in Santa Clara County. In one recent transaction, a Westwinds home sold for $310,000, a significant savings from the $1.1 million median home price in the county.

Lisa Bail, 58, is a receptionist at a Palo Alto law firm. Bail, an Air Force veteran, and her husband, Chris, bought a home in the park in 2006 and pay about $1,200 a month for rent and utilities. Her husband is disabled, and the couple makes around $60,000 a year.

A move from the park would likely force them out of the Bay Area. “This is really horrible,” Bail said. “I don’t know what we’re going to do.”

Jim Canova, 60, bought a home in Westwinds with his wife, Valerie, in 1986. The couple raised their two children in the community, and Canova has served on the board of the Santa Clara Unified School District for nearly 30 years.

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26-story housing highrise eyed in downtown San Jose The family pays about $1,300 a month in rent, and just spent $30,000 to improve their home and deck, he said. “It’s a beautiful community,” he said. The prospect of evicting more than 700 homeowners is “ridiculous.”

Canova, a small business owner, is now a candidate for the 25th Assembly District. If the park is redeveloped, he said, he hopes there’s a compromise that allows homeowners to recoup the value of their homes.

The best case, he said, would allow residents the option to purchase the property with investors and run the park as a co-operative. “Give the community the opportunity to buy it.”

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