“If it goes up again next year at this rate, I will be forced out of my home … I would probably end up homeless.”
Disabled veteran, 74 · 34 years
The facts
The numbers behind the fear.
Every figure on this page comes from residents’ own space-fee statements and increase notices, public records, or the sources linked beside it. Names are withheld unless a neighbor has asked to be named.
1
The November 1 increases
Update, October 28: the City Council’s urgency ordinance stopped these increases. Increases noticed before October 28 don’t take effect, and any new increase is limited to once a year and capped. What it does →
Every notice residents have collected at Riviera Mobile Home Park is dated July 31, 2026, uses the same form, and adds a flat dollar amount: $350 a month on six of the nine, $100 on the other three.
Because the dollar amount is the same whatever a space already pays, the lowest fees take the largest percentage. For a household paying $2,020.50, that is a 17.3% increase in a single day.
Not every household has a notice yet. The park serves them as each household’s yearly anniversary comes up, so more will arrive over the coming months.
$4,200a year from one household, from one $350 increase
≈$35,000off the value of that home, on the industry’s $10-per-$1,000 rule
For scale: San Diego inflation was 4.7% for the 12 months ending September 2026 (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics).
| Household | Fee before | Increase | Noticed fee (blocked) | Change |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Household 1 | $2,020.50 | $350.00 | $2,370.50 | 17.32% |
| Household 2 | $2,022.50 | $350.00 | $2,372.50 | 17.31% |
| Household 3 | $2,030.50 | $350.00 | $2,380.50 | 17.24% |
| Household 4 | $2,455.50 | $350.00 | $2,805.50 | 14.25% |
| Household 5 | $2,795.50 | $350.00 | $3,145.50 | 12.52% |
| Household 6 | $2,796.50 | $350.00 | $3,146.50 | 12.52% |
| Household 7 | $1,563.50 | $100.00 | $1,663.50 | 6.40% |
| Household 8 | $1,580.50 | $100.00 | $1,680.50 | 6.33% |
| Household 9 | $1,581.50 | $100.00 | $1,681.50 | 6.32% |
Riviera Mobile Home Park increase notices dated July 31, 2026, effective November 1, 2026. None of these increases took effect: the City’s temporary ordinance, adopted October 28, blocked them, so each household still pays the “Fee before” amount. Households are numbered; the coalition holds the original notices. Other parks: residents of Sea Aire report notices of about 7.6–7.7% effective January 1, 2027, and Valley of Dreams residents report 7% for 2027.
2
Eighteen years of one home’s fees
$631→$2,022
One Riviera home’s monthly space fee is up 266% since 2004, when it was $553. The chart starts in 2008 ($631, up 221% since then). Riviera wanted to raise it to $2,372.50 on November 1, 2026, but the City’s temporary ordinance blocked that increase, so it is now $2,022.50. Had it kept pace with San Diego inflation from 2008, it would be about $1,009.
Actual monthly space feeIf it had followed San Diego inflationIncrease noticed for Nov. 1, 2026, blocked by the temporary ordinance
Source: the household’s own statements and notices. Inflation uses the San Diego CPI (U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics); 2026 uses 2025, the latest full year. The 2020 figure is after the park’s December 2020 partial rollback. Water, sewer and trash were billed separately from August 2019, so later figures understate what the household pays.
It used to follow the cost of living
Through 2016 the park measured its increases against the Consumer Price Index, and increases came about every two years. From 2017 on, notices stopped citing inflation and began citing the “value of coastal land and housing” and “housing scarcity.”
Now it’s every year, and bigger
The park adds the same dollar amount to each space each year: $130 (2022), $172.50 (2023), $137 (2024), $156 (2025), and $350 noticed for 2026, which the City’s temporary ordinance blocked. One household’s fee rose 54% from 2020 to 2026; the blocked increase would have made it 80.9%.
“Market rate,” with no market shown
Management says its increases follow the market, but has not said which parks it compares or what formula it uses. Residents cannot check the number and have nowhere to appeal it.
3
Costs moved onto homeowners
- Utilities. Gas, electricity, water, sewer and trash were moved out of the space fee and onto individual meters between about 2016 and 2019. One resident who bought in 2014 at $1,050 a month with every utility included now pays a base fee of $2,620.50, plus about $300 a month in utilities.
- The park’s trees. Homeowners now pay to trim palm trees on park land, about $750 a year for one household, although state law makes management “solely responsible for the trimming, pruning, or removal” of trees on residents’ spaces once notified (Civil Code § 798.37.5).
- Driveways. One homeowner was required to install a driveway at her own expense after she bought.
4
When residents try to sell
A home is most residents’ largest asset. Rising space fees make it harder and harder to sell.
- The next buyer pays more. Riviera’s own website lists a land-lease rate of $2,130 to $3,300 a month for new buyers (checked November 2, 2026), and adds: “Land lease payments are subject to change prior to lease signing.” Every sale resets the fee upward, and the higher fee comes straight out of what the seller can get.
- A quote that changed in escrow. One seller was quoted a buyer’s space fee of $2,950 in writing. Once the sale was in escrow, the park raised it to $3,300.
- Homes sit unsold. Buyers like the homes but walk away when they see the space fee and no limit on future increases.
- Selling to the park for far less. Some residents have sold their homes to the park far below their value because they could not afford required pre-listing repairs, or could not keep paying the fee after moving into care.
5
When residents organize, the fee goes up
“I started organizing my neighbors so we could come to the City and ask for help. The park owner’s answer was to raise our space rent by $500 a month, about 40 percent, in one increase. It worked exactly the way it was meant to work. The neighbors who had been standing with me sold their homes and moved away.”
Sharon Henderson, homeowner at Beacon’s Beach Village, Encinitas, since 2008 · written statement, shared with her permission
Residents of Valley of Dreams report the same $500 increase. This is why neighbors hesitate to put their names on anything, and why an urgency moratorium has to come first: a study period without one gives every park time to raise fees before the rules arrive.
Other California cities have seen the same pattern. Los Angeles County found in 2018 that owners “may seek to increase Rents in anticipation of imminent regulation.” Strong ordinances answer this with an anti-retaliation rule. See what the ordinance includes →
6
The Sands, Leucadia: twenty years with no ordinance
The Sands Mobile Home Park on North Coast Highway 101 was sold in January 2005. The space fee went from $675 a month to $875 by October 2006, 30% in under two years, and the new owner offered to sell the park to the residents for $18.5 million.
“He has stated he will continue to raise our rents over the next 18-24 months until we either purchase the property, or move out.”
The Sands Residents Association, letter to the Encinitas City Council, 2006 (City Council Agenda Report, Mar. 8, 2006)The residents asked the Council for an ordinance. None was adopted. Today the Sands’ space fee is about $2,495 to $2,550 a month, up 278% since 2005. At San Diego inflation it would be about $1,186.
| Year | Monthly space fee |
|---|---|
| 2005 | $675 |
| 2006 | $875 |
| 2009 | $1,150 |
| 2016 | $1,500 |
| 2021 | $1,800 – $2,000 |
| 2023 – 2025 | $2,100 – $2,200 |
| 2026 | $2,495 – $2,550 |
Sources: City Council Agenda Report, Mar. 8, 2006, with the residents’ packet; resident report (2009); home sale listings, 2016–2026.
7
Neighbors in their own words
Riviera residents answered a coalition questionnaire in August and September 2026. Names are withheld at their request. Three things come up again and again: they were told increases would follow the cost of living; they cannot move the home or sell it at a fair price; and they are afraid of losing a home they own outright.
“We thought we would live out our lives here … Our quality of life is in food lines now just to be able to pay the increase.”
Caring for her husband, an 82-year-old disabled veteran · 25 years
“I’m now mostly retired and planned to stay here the rest of my life. Now I’m not confident that I’ll be able to afford it.”
Mostly retired · in the family since 1994
“These increases aren’t abstract numbers — they can mean choosing between food, medication, or other basic needs.”
Full-time working resident · 3 years
“It is definitely not mobile and not possible to move this home … when the space rent is too high it’s also impossible to sell it, so we feel trapped.”
Small-business owner · 24 years
“When I bought my house, the owners told us increases would be between $20 and $35 every two years.”
18-year resident
“Thought this was our forever home. Retired now and making less, not more. Scared for the future of affordability. Will never be able to sell.”
Retired · 25 years
“I cannot sell it because prospective buyers are rightfully terrified of unchecked rent hikes.”
Retiree on a fixed income, trying to sell
“My trailer represents essentially all of my savings.”
Single mother · 5 years
Live in an Encinitas park? Take the economic survey →
8
The eleven parks
Encinitas has eleven manufactured home parks with 734 homes. In ten of them, homeowners pay the park a monthly space fee. At the eleventh, Park Encinitas, residents own their lots.
| Park | Address | Spaces |
|---|---|---|
| Riviera | 699 N Vulcan Ave | 147 |
| Park Encinitas resident-owned | 444 N El Camino Real | 155 |
| Green Valley Mobile Estates | 350 N El Camino Real | 81 |
| Trailer Rancho | 1549 N Vulcan Ave | 82 |
| Shamrock | 152 N Coast Hwy 101 | 61 |
| The Sands | 1624 N Coast Hwy 101 | 56 |
| Sea Aire | 523 N Vulcan Ave | 49 |
| Valley of Dreams | 123 Jasper St | 45 |
| Beacon’s Beach Village | 170 Diana St | 28 |
| Hilltop | 155 W Jason St | 22 |
| Wee Mobile Home Court | 159 Diana St | 8 |
| 11 parks | 734 |
Source: City of Encinitas zoning map and San Diego County assessor parcels (Sept. 2026). The state HCD registry counts slightly differently (742 spaces, including an 8-space listing the City does not map as a manufactured home park), and older City counts were about 700 units in 11 parks (City staff report, 2006).
It passed, 5–0.
On October 28 the City Council adopted the urgency ordinance before the November 1 increases. Next: workshops on the permanent fairness ordinance, with a draft expected around February 2027.