Over 20 million Americans live in manufactured housing and 1.6 million Californians live in manufactured home parks, otherwise known as “mobile home parks” or “trailer parks.” These neighborhoods provide essential affordable housing in communities across the state. However, park residents face a double burden of tenure insecurity and heightened vulnerability to climate change and other hazards. Mobile home park ownership is increasingly consolidating as investors and corporate owners buy parks previously owned by ‘mom-and-pop’ landlords. Simultaneously, public entities, non-profits, and resident cooperatives are buying parks to preserve their affordability. These varied ownership and governance regimes exert powerful influences on residents’ lives under both everyday circumstances and in the event of climate change-linked disruptions.

This project explores the question: How does manufactured home park ownership and governance shape residents’ vulnerability and adaptation to climate change related hazards? The research includes a state-wide mobile home park ownership census and geospatial analysis of climate vulnerabilities. Drawing on these statewide analyses, this talk centers case studies informed by ethnographic fieldwork in climate vulnerable manufactured home parks across the San Francisco Bay Area and Delta regions. The research suggests that mobile home parks can be venues for transformative adaptation, giving low- and moderate-income people the power to act in the face of climate change and other threats. However, these transformative potentials are mediated by ownership and governance arrangements, which shape residents’ security, agency, and resources. This inquiry offers insights on transformative adaptation across community types in California and beyond.