Assemblymember Damon Connolly has introduced two bills that aim to strengthen protections for mobile home residents.

AB 456 would stop mobile home park managers from requiring residents to repair their homes’ interiors before the properties can be sold. AB 806 would prohibit managers from restricting residents from installing cooling devices and would also require parks to have cooling centers.

“This legislation would assist vulnerable residents, including seniors, and ensure that mobile home park residents are able to stay healthy and safe during heat events,” Connolly said of AB 806.

Connolly said he believes that many mobile home residents are being mistreated when they try to sell their homes or install air conditioners.

“The view by many who live in these parks is they are being unfairly targeted by predatory park managers who use arbitrary lease restrictions and requirements to wrongfully evict tenants, and to also restrict what tenants can do with their properties,” said Connolly, a Democrat who represents Marin and part of Sonoma County.

Connolly said there have been cases where residents were evicted for allegedly breaking their lease terms after installing air conditioners. Park managers who violate AB 806 could be fined up to $2,000.

Legal Aid of Sonoma County, a Santa Rosa nonprofit that offers legal services to mobile home residents, supports AB 806. Sunny Noh, the executive director, said her staff assisted 35 mobile home residents last year. The majority of the households included seniors.

Noh said there have been lease provisions in local mobile home parks that prohibited air conditioners. She added that extreme weather is frequent in Sonoma County, including a 109-degree day recorded last June in Cloverdale, which has five mobile home parks.

“Leases that prohibit cooling systems are not only impractical in the face of climate change, but they can be a death sentence — particularly for our aging population,” Noh said.

As for the need for AB 456, Connolly said that “bad actor” park owners are using ambiguous policies to require mobile home owners to spend time and money on unnecessary work inside their homes in order for their home sales to be approved.

“Imagine your home and you have arbitrary restrictions imposed on you in order to sell,” he said. “That is unfair.”

AB 456 would also require a park manager to provide a mobile homeowner with a written summary of repairs or improvements only to a mobile home’s exterior as a condition of sale no later than 15 days after the owner’s request.

“Right now, management is slow-walking approvals,” Connolly said.

The Golden State Manufactured-home Owners League, which advocates for residents, supports the bill.

“Interference with the right to sell your home is not legal anywhere in California, except in a mobile home park,” said Anne Anderson, the organization’s president.

“You can and should give us equal protection under the law.”

Lucie Hollingsworth, policy director for Legal Aid of Marin, said her nonprofit backs AB 456.

“Mobile homes are the last bastion of affordable housing in many parts of California, but even mobile home owners, especially older adults, feel the pressure from consistent increases in lot rents, fees and inflation,” she said. “By allowing quicker sales of mobile homes, AB 456 benefits owners experiencing financial instability and reduces the stress and frustrations of what is already a stressful process.”