(a)  The Legislature finds and declares as follows:

(1)  That manufactured housing and mobilehome parks provide a significant source of homeownership for California residents, but increasing costs of mobilehome park development and construction, combined with the costs of manufactured housing, the costs of financing and operating these parks, the low vacancy rates, and the pressures to convert mobilehome parks to other uses increasingly render mobilehome park living unaffordable, particularly to those residents most in need of affordable housing.

(2)  That state government can play an important role in addressing the problems confronted by mobilehome park residents by providing supplemental financing that makes it possible for mobilehome park residents to acquire the mobilehome parks in which they reside and convert them to resident ownership.

(3)  That a significant number of older mobilehome parks exist in California, the residents of which may collectively lack the experience or other qualifications necessary to successfully own and operate their parks; that these parks provide low-cost housing for their residents that would be difficult to replace if the parks were converted to other uses; that these parks are more likely than other parks to be threatened by physical deterioration or conversion to other uses; and that it is, therefore, appropriate to use the resources of the fund pursuant to this chapter to transfer these parks to ownership by qualified nonprofit housing sponsors or by local public entities for the purpose of preserving them as affordable housing.

(b)  Therefore, it is the intent of the Legislature, in enacting this chapter, to encourage and facilitate the conversion of mobilehome parks to resident ownership or ownership by qualified nonprofit housing sponsors or by local public entities, to protect low-income mobilehome park residents from both physical and economic displacement, to obtain a high level of private and other public financing for mobilehome park conversions, and to help establish acceptance for resident-owned, nonprofit-owned, and government-owned mobilehome parks in the private market.

(Amended by Stats. 1999, Ch. 473, Sec. 1. Effective January 1, 2000.)