ABOUT HMOA

   The Hayward Mobilehome Owners Association was founded in 1979 by  the late Vincent M. Haertel, a community leader and resident of Spanish  Ranch I Mobilehome Park. Mr. Haertel realized a need to bring Hayward's  nine mobilehome parks under one organization in order to more  successfully defend, protect and preserve our unique lifestyle as we are  both home owners as well as renters.  In the early 1980's, Mr. Haertel,  together with other prominent community leaders,  worked closely with  the City of Hayward to create our City's Mobilehome Space Rent  Stabilization Ordinance to protect park residents from unfair rent  practices.  The most significant  component of the ordinance was the  establishment of rent control.  

SINCE THE FOUNDING OF HMOA IN 1979, 

WE HAVE ACCOMPLISHED THE FOLLOWING:

• 2003 INCORPORATION -- HMOA,  Inc. was incorporated under California's Mutual Benefit Non-Profit  Corporation Law as a category 501(C4), Social Welfare Entity.   Incorporation not only strengthens our organization, but it protects  individual park residents from being sued by a park owner.  In addition  to attaining  Federal and State Tax exemption status, we are also  registered with California's Department of Justice, Registry of  Charitable Trusts.
• 2004   CREATION OF HMOA.NET -- This  website is important to all mobilehome residents in that it provides  information pertinent to our very unique lifestyle.  In addition, we  have also included a section entitled 'useful information' which  provides information on many topics such as Municipal and State  legislation as it applies to mobilehome living.
• 2004  MANDATORY MEET AND CONFER -- This  significantly streamlines the arbitration process whenever mobilehome  residents contest rents and other disputes with their park owners. This  allows park residents to  meet with their park owners to work through  the issues.  In many cases, park residents have been spared the  exorbitant cost associated with procuring legal council.  We also  included an amendment whereby if a dispute could not be resolved and  must to proceed to mediation, the resident(s) and park owner would  jointly chose from a pool of five qualified mediators through a process  of elimination.  To further simplify the arbitration, the Alternative  Dispute Resolution (ADR) was removed from the the Ordinance.
• 2005   ELIMINATION OF THE TRUST MECHANISM -- Under  the original provisions of Hayward's Mobilehome Space Rent  Stabilization Ordinance, park owners were permitted to establish a  'trust' account in their names whereby park residents were required to  prematurely pay for such things as capital pass-thru improvement  projects!
• 2005  INTRODUCTION OF THE VINCENT M. HAERTEL COMMUNITY ACHIEVEMENT AWARD -- HMOA  wanted to honor an outstanding  Hayward citizen who dedicated and  steadfast their support of Hayward's mobilehome community. We honored  former Hayward Councilmember Doris Rodriquez as our inaugural recipient.   The presentation was followed by a reception  in her honor.
• 2005  ESTABLISHMENT OF OUR LEGAL FUND -- When the residents of Eden Gardens Mobilehome Park were notified of a  $200.00 a month increase by their park owner, they secured a $5,000.00  interest-free loan from HMOA to retain an attorney.  An agreement was  reached with the park owner that proved to be a far more viable solution  for the park residents.
• 2005   CREATION OF OUR UNIQUE MOBILE ZONING CONFIGURATION --  We  also succeeded in positioning our nine Hayward mobilehome parks under  The City of Hayward's General Plan which created our own unique zoning  classification.  What this accomplished made conversion of a mobilehome  to another use far more difficult for a mobilehome park owner. 
• 2013   SAFEGUARDED HAYWARD'S FIVE REMAINING SENIOR PARKS FROM ANY POSSIBILITY OF CONVERSION TO ALL AGE 
• This  was accomplished as a result of a judgement by the Ninth Circuit Court  of Appeals and was unanimously supported by both the Planning Commission  and the Hayward City Council and made Hayward the first major city in  California to secure these safeguards.  This decision represents the a  'win-win' for both The Hayward Mobilehome Community and the City as one  of Hayward's major commitments in securing affordable housing to  accommodate the City's expanding senior population. 
• 2014   COMPREHENSIVE MOBILEHOME PARK CONVERSION ORDINANCE -- By extracting the most favorable aspects of existing conversion  ordinances throughout California, we constructed a very comprehensive  conversion ordinance which ranks as one of the best in the state. 
• 2014   THE VINCENT M. HARTEL  COMMUNITY ACHIEVEMENT AWARD -- Was awarded to former Mayor Michael Sweeney for his unwavering support of our mobilehome community.