Mobile Home Park News Briefing

WARWICK TOWNSHIP, Pa. —

Residents of Plateau Village Mobile Home Park in Warwick Township expressed their anger and frustration at a meeting regarding the planned expansion of United Zion Retirement Community, which will replace their homes and force them out by January.

The meeting focused on United Zion's conditional use application for the expansion, which includes 78 independent living duplexes and townhouse units and a community building.

Sue Verdegem, CEO of United Zion Retirement Community, clarified the situation, saying, "I do just want to make it very clear that tonight's proceedings have nothing to do with the closure of the...

EVANSVILLE, Ind. (WFIE) - We have an update on the plans to demo parts of a run-down mobile home park in Evansville.

It’s off of Oak Hill Road.

Earlier this month, city leaders signed an emergency raze order to tear down 10 vacant, damaged mobile homes on the property.

That work began last week, and crews say they hope to have it complete by Wednesday.

The city previously discussed issuing vacate orders for the people living in the park, but now say that will not happen.

Officials say the Department of Metropolitan Development will be helping them with other options.

Priced out of traditional homes during an affordability crisis, many in Wisconsin have found another way to pursue an ownership dream.

Experts estimate that more than 100,000 Wisconsin residents live in manufactured homes, the more accurate name for what many call mobile homes or trailers — structures that make up the country’s largest portion of unsubsidized low-income housing. Many live in parks where they own their homes but rent the land beneath them.

But Wisconsin’s government is failing to enforce basic protections for residents at a time when private equity firms are buying up parks to maximize profits, a Wisconsin Watch/WPR...

ARUNDEL, Maine —

Residents of a mobile home park in Arundel are urging town leaders to address what they call a loophole in a proposed rent control ordinance before it goes to a town-wide vote in June.

People living in Shady Oaks say the measure, as currently written, would allow the park’s owner to raise rents on vacant lots to so-called “market rates” — without a cap and without a clear definition of what that term means.

A group of tenants is planning to rally ahead of Monday night's select board meeting to push for changes. The rally is expected to take place shortly before the meeting begins.

The bill, authored by Sen. Liz Bolden, DFL-Rochester, aims to achieve three things: define reasonable rent and prevent unreasonable rent increases from forcing residents out of their homes, give residents a better chance at owning their homes and enhance the enforcement of existing laws to protect residents.

Sen. Bolden’s bill comes as manufactured housing parks are purchased by out of state private equity firms that raise lot rents and make what was once considered one of the last affordable housing options that much less attainable.

Goleta city councilmembers voted to maintain the senior-status of University Mobile Home Park on Tuesday, extending the senior mobile home housing overlay that applies to the park until February 2027. The initial 45-day emergency overlay passed last month would have expired on April 3. The park’s owners and managers have sued the city in federal court over this emergency ordinance. 

What Is University Mobile Home Park? 

About 80 seniors, many of them low-income, call the park home. Located just off Hollister Avenue in Old Town Goleta, mobile homes are arranged in neat rows. For decades the park has served primarily senior citizens. Most...

Gov. Josh Shapiro visited a Berks County manufactured housing community Wednesday to advocate for legislation that would cap annual lot rent increases for Pennsylvania’s manufactured home households.

That’s welcome news for residents in communities such as the Village at Fox Crossing in Forks Township. They own their manufactured homes but not the land they rest on.

A years-long legal dispute finally ended when developer Jim Seitz lost the land to his bank, which then sold it in December to Macungie resident Jason Danweber.

The tenants worried for years whether a new owner would raise their rents. Danweber told lehighvalleylive.com he...

CONCORD, NH — Merrimack County Savings Bank, known as The Merrimack, provided a $25,000 contribution to the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund.

This funding is intended to support affordable housing initiatives across New Hampshire. The donation specifically targets assisting low- and moderate-income families in acquiring new, energy-efficient manufactured homes.

The contribution was made possible through the Community Development Finance Authority (CDFA) tax credit program. This program allows New Hampshire businesses to receive a state tax credit for 75 percent of their contributions to qualifying economic or community development...

LAKE WORTH BEACH, Fla. — Voters in Lake Worth Beach and Boca Raton have rejected proposals tied to development and control over public land, emphasizing the importance of keeping community spaces under public control.

In Lake Worth Beach, voters were asked whether the city should have more flexibility to partner with developers, which would have allowed leases on some public properties, including areas by A-1-A, to extend up to 99 years without returning to voters.

City leaders argued that this change could help bring investment to aging facilities, but opponents contended it would take power away from residents and that public spaces...

FREEDOM — Residents in Freedom approved a new ordinance regulating mobile home parks during the town’s March 13 election, establishing a detailed framework that will guide how such developments are proposed, reviewed and built in the rural Waldo County community. The measure passed by a margin of 116 to 57 and takes effect immediately.

The newly adopted ordinance creates a comprehensive regulatory system governing the creation, expansion and operation of mobile home parks within the town. Town officials said the intent of the measure is to protect public health and safety while still allowing mobile home parks to serve as an important...

STERLING HEIGHTS, Mich. – Residents from manufactured home communities across the region came together on Sunday for a meeting about climbing costs and deteriorating living conditions.

The meeting follows Local 4 reporter Kyla Russell’s series of reports spotlighting some issues impacting the neighborhoods.

Most recently, Local 4 covered an issue facing the Rudgate Manor neighborhood in Sterling Heights. The park has seen a near 85% increase in lot rent since the current owners took over, according to resident records.

When an estimated 20 million people live in mobile home parks across the nation, residents say the rising prices are...

About three years after applying for it, Whispering Pines mobile home community in Lee Township was granted a renewal of its operating license by the State of Michigan on Friday.

Whispering Pines general counsel Steve Cherin provided the Daily News a copy of the license, which will expire on Oct. 1, 2027. The license, issued specifically by the state's Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA) department, indicates that Whispering Pines, at 227 West Olson Road, has 106 property sites and is operated by Akshita Banerjee.

Several residents of a 25-acre mobile home park in Mississauga are now speaking out in an effort to save their homes, but it may be futile as Peel Region moves full steam ahead to clear the land they live on to make way for new development.

Tucked away, off Dundas Street East, you’ll find the Twin Pines Mobile Home Park where Ruth and Gord McIntyre have lived for the past 50 years.

“We raised our family here because it has such a great sense of community,” Ruth said. “It’s just this little town where everybody felt warm.”

But time is running out for the McIntyres and others who’ve called this park home.

“These are our homes. And we happen...

ROCKFORD, Ill. (WTVO) — Rockford city officials will consider a proposal this week that could transform a long-standing South Main Street mobile home park into a modern, long-term RV and fifth-wheel community.

The city’s Zoning Board of Appeals will hear the plan at the March 17 meeting, before it heads to the Code and Regulations Committee ahead of the full City Council.

The property, located between the Rock River and Klehm Arboretum on S. Main, currently operates as the Riverview Mobile Home & 5th Wheel park, a decades-old, grandfathered mobile home community that was annexed into the city in 2001.

Over the years, deteriorated and...

After eight months of fighting to keep their mobile home park and even finding a potential new buyer, residents of Forest View Mobile Home Park in Blue Island will move out by the summer, said their attorney, Krisann Kuecher.

Residents said in October they found a buyer for their property who could revitalize the park, but by the end of February the owners of Forest View Mobile Home Park Inc., decided to not move forward with that sale, said Kuecher and the owner's attorney, Charles Zivin.

The park is managed by Mer-Car Corporation.

"Residents are deeply saddened and feel these profits are being made at their expense," Kuecher said.

For months, former residents of the Pacific Palisades Bowl Mobile Estates have feared the uncommunicative owners of the property would seek to displace them in favor of a more lucrative development deal after the Palisades fire destroyed the rent-controlled, roughly 170-unit mobile home park.

A confidential memorandum listing the Bowl for sale indicates the owners intend to do exactly that.

The memorandum, quietly posted on a website associated with the global commercial real estate company CBRE, says that the Palisades fire created a “blank canvas for redevelopment” at a site “ideally positioned for a transformative residential or...

The Lilly Belle Mobile Home Park, a small, family-owned property near Elmore’s Corner east of Durango, has been put on the market.

The listing follows a statewide trend of manufactured housing consolidation, as smaller, family-run parks are increasingly sold to larger regional or national property owners.

For residents, such sales can threaten the affordability of their housing, often through potential rent increases. In La Plata County, at least four mobile home parks have recently purchased their land collectively and formed resident-owned cooperatives – a model that can help stabilize rents through shared ownership.

That option does...

Residents of the Old Hellgate Village mobile home park are hoping to land a federal grant to replace the property's outdated septic system – a move that would save them big on their monthly lot rent.

Missoula County this week approved a $187,000 request from NeighborWorks Montana to serve as matching funds for the grant application. The funding comes from the county's Housing Innovation Fund.

“If they're able to pull together all the funding and get the project completed, it would significantly reduce out-of-pocket costs residents have to pay for their monthly lot rent,” said John Wilke, the county's housing specialist. “It'll keep 34...

The Santa Paula City Council approved an urgency ordinance on March 4 to restrict how often a mobile home park can increase rent in a year.

Residents at the 400 Mobile Estates are upset park owners attempted to increase rents twice last year.

“This is in part due to the stress and limbo this whole process of repeated rental increase applications has caused residents, especially because the proposed rent increase was significant enough that it would displace many families,” said Jennifer Hernandez, an associate policy director for Central Coast Alliance United for a Sustainable Economy, or CAUSE, before the March 4 meeting.

OTTUMWA, Iowa (KYOU) - A mobile home park built for a large-scale meditation event at Maharishi International University is closing after 43 years.

Utopia Park’s 176 trailers were originally constructed in six weeks and intended to last only six months. Last July, MIU took back management of the park. An inspection of every trailer found many homes beyond repair.

Jeremy Brenin, MIU vice president of operations, said the closure was not a quick decision.

“The decision to close the park wasn’t made lightly at all. It was a lot of coordination, a lot of discussions internally about whether or not we should even, you know, go this route,”...

Looking for a new place to live wasn’t something Pat Cook expected to be doing at age 84.

Her home for the last 12 years, Warwick Township’s Plateau Village Mobile Home Park, was where she expected to live out her retired years with her four cats and a close-knit group of neighbors that look out for each other.

“I thought this would be the last place I lived until I went home with the Lord,” she said.

Searsport voters approved an ordinance on Saturday that limits rent increases at mobile home parks. The measure passed 67-12 at the annual town meeting.

The rent stabilization measure will apply to all three of the town’s mobile home parks. Parks that are owned by a cooperative or have passed a stricter agreement restricting rent increases are exempt.

Under the new ordinance, park owners may raise lot rents only once each year. In general, the ordinance limits rent increases to the most recently posted annual percentage change in the Consumer Price Index plus 2%. But owners may be able to charge a higher increase in rents or fees if they...

UPDATE, March 3: Fort Collins City Council gave final approval to creating a mobile home park licensing system and creating new requirements for park owners during their March 3 meeting.

The measure passed unanimously.

ORIGINAL STORY: Fort Collins is planning to increase city oversight of mobile home parks by creating a new licensing system and requiring park owners to be accountable for needed maintenance.

There are nine privately owned mobile home parks in city limits and an estimated 1,400 homes within them, according to city data.

Five other mobile home parks are located just outside city limits in Fort Collins' growth management area...

Phillips Mobile Home Park, a mobile home park that Pitkin County purchased in 2018 for affordable housing preservation and possible future development, was re-zoned yesterday following a regular meeting of the Board of County Commissioners. 

The subdivision is intended to align actual land uses with land use code. The land was developed prior to current land-use code and is thus designated as “non-conforming.” The updates would change this. 

“The ordinance that approved the purchase of the subject property, the 2018 version, contemplated the division of this land for the purposes of maintaining the existing workforce housing or even open...

PALATKA, Fla. – A growing housing trend in Northeast Florida is expanding beyond single-family subdivisions and into manufactured housing, as developers look to meet demand from renters priced out of homeownership.

In Palatka, land clearing is expected to begin within 60 days for The Cove at Silver Lake Mobile Home Park, a 56-unit community of newly built manufactured homes — all available for rent.

“We’ve been working on this development for about two and a half years now,” said Apryle Melvin of KOP Realty, the developer behind the project. “Now that we finally have the green light and everything’s been approved, we’re ready to roll on...