Arizona Zoning Reform Bills Would Protect Mobile Home Residents

In a commentary piece in the Arizona Mirror, Christian Solorio and Vicente J. Reid call on policymakers to change zoning laws to prevent the eviction of mobile home residents, many of whom are losing their homes to steep land rent increases and redevelopment.

For decades, the authors write, new mobile home parks have been systematically excluded from many Arizona cities by exclusionary zoning codes. Now, developers are eyeing mobile home parks as affordable, convenient infill development investments for multifamily apartments or condos, putting residents of manufactured home parks even more at risk of losing their housing.

The authors insist that this displacement of mobile home residents, often fixed-income retirees or other vulnerable groups, should be addressed at the policy level. “Exclusionary zoning practices must end in order to provide our families and communities the security and dignity that is taken with their eviction, displacement, and destruction of their homes.”

Three zoning bills in the Arizona state legislature—House Bill 2536, Senate Bill 1161, and SB 1163—could make an impact on exclusionary zoning. “Each seeks to unwind exclusionary zoning by: allowing for the construction of casitas, manufactured housing, and affordable housing along the light rail by-right.” For the authors, passing these bills is “absolutely necessary to give our working families a fighting chance against increasing housing costs and provide stability for our mobile-home park residents.”