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Next City: An Unexpected Idea for Preserving America’s Mobile Homes

  •    Originally released by Next City on July 17th, 2025
  •    Commentary made on July 25th, 2025

Preview:

This op-ed is part of a series on manufactured housing and solutions to help mitigate threats facing mobile home residents. Read our first story on health impacts of private equity ownership.

Punctuating the country is an unknown world of mobile home parks that are often seen but rarely recognized. These communities are everywhere: scattered along highways, in urban crannies in California, Florida, and the Sunbelt, on exurban territory from the Northeast to the Pacific Northwest, next to factories, farmland, mines and military bases. Blink and you’ll miss them. The National Register of Historic Places certainly has.

There is not a single...

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Our thoughts on this story:

There is not a single mobile home or mobile home park in the National Register — a glaring omission that, if addressed, challenges the preservation field to join the fight for affordable housing.

I’m shocked that not a single mobile home park is in the National Register. I would have thought that some of the earlier landmark properties, like Point Dume, would have made the cut.

Lookout Santa Cruz: In the Public Interest: Mobile home park residents lower their armor in rail trail fight, for now

  •    Originally released by Lookout Santa Cruz on July 21st, 2025
  •    Commentary made on July 25th, 2025

Preview:

Last week, when mobile home park residents in Capitola announced their intention to thwart the county transportation authority’s effort to survey sections of their lots, it marked the latest escalation in a dispute between the mobile home park’s owner, residents and the government over who has the rights to swaths of land occupied by residents but technically owned by the government and needed for the Coastal Rail Trail project. 

Yet, with the weekend came deescalation, and residents announced Monday that they would relent and allow the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission to survey the mobile home lots that encroach onto...

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Our thoughts on this story:

This is the same article from last week in which many of the lots have to be torn down to expand the train tracks. So at least a part of another park bites the dust.

Vox: Cutting five words from this law could make houses cheaper

  •    Originally released by Vox on July 21st, 2025
  •    Commentary made on July 25th, 2025

Preview:

There exists an almost absurdly simple fix that could help ease the housing crisis. It would cost the government nothing, require deleting just five words from a 50-year-old federal law, and has enjoyed quiet support from housing researchers and leaders for decades.

The target is an obscure regulation that requires every manufactured home to be built on a “permanent chassis” — a steel trailer frame that can attach to wheels. The idea was that the chassis was necessary — even after the home was installed and the wheels taken off — because manufactured houses, which trace their roots to World War II trailers, could theoretically...

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Our thoughts on this story:

It will be interesting to see if they can force HUD to remove the “chassis rule” and stop making mobile homes sit 3’ off the ground with the embarrassing skirting that screams “trailer park”. The single-family home lobby will fight this concept to the death, but maybe the industry will get lucky.

Chicago Tribune: Blue Island mobile home residents seek more time as city pushes eviction

  •    Originally released by Chicago Tribune on July 10th, 2025
  •    Commentary made on July 18th, 2025

Preview:

A group of residents from Forest View Mobile Home Park in Blue Island said Wednesday they are asking city officials for more time after the city demanded June 24 that the property owners evict them.

Residents said they’re fighting for more time to relocate at a minimum, as the city ordered immediate evictions after revoking the property owners’ business license late June, citing unsafe conditions, code violations and unpaid water bills.

City Administrator Thomas Wogan said Tuesday the management company owes almost $4 million in unpaid water bills. He also said the property poses health and safety concerns, as it has had some of the...

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Our thoughts on this story:

And another park bites the dust.

WGME: Rent hikes hit Maine mobile home parks before new state protection takes effect

  •    Originally released by WGME on July 9th, 2025
  •    Commentary made on July 18th, 2025

Preview:

SANFORD (WGME) – More mobile home parks are raising rents on residents, and one state representative says it’s retaliation for the work lawmakers did to try and protect people from major rent increases.

“I wasn't surprised that it was $75, because that's what it was last year,” Leigh Wood, who lives at Marsh Brook Estates mobile home park in Sanford, said.

“This April it went up to $475, and starting in September it's going to be going up to $600,” Jeffrey Sirois, who lives at Oak Hill Park, a mobile home park in Sabattus, said.

Marsh Brook Estates and Oak Hill are two of the latest mobile home parks to raise the lot rent on residents. In...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Any smart owner would raise rents as much as allowed by law before rent control is enacted in Maine. Only a journalism student with zero real-life experience or common sense would write an article this stupid.

Journal AZ: Habitat for Humanity earmarks money for home repairs

  •    Originally released by Journal AZ on July 13th, 2025
  •    Commentary made on July 18th, 2025

Preview:

While Verde Valley Habitat for Humanity is perhaps best known for building homes, it also works to keep people in their homes.

“That’s where our Critical Home Repair Program comes in. We build ramps so a veteran in a wheelchair can get to his front door,” VVHFH wrote June 14 on Facebook. “We install grab bars so a widow can shower without fear of falling. We fix dangerous wiring and replace crumbling flooring. We show up — because safety and dignity shouldn’t depend on a fixed income.”

In collaboration with the city of Sedona, VVHFH has $400,000 earmarked for home repairs to assist low- to moderate-income homeowners within the city limits...

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Our thoughts on this story:

You know who is already doing this? Every park owner in America. They renovate old homes to re-sell them and often do home repairs at no charge simply to enhance the aesthetics of the property.

PESP: Updated research shows over 25% of manufactured homes in Michigan owned by private equity, similar entities

  •    Originally released by PESP on July 14th, 2025
  •    Commentary made on July 18th, 2025

Preview:

The Private Equity Stakeholder Project (PESP) and Manufactured Housing Action (MHAction) have released an update to the Private Equity Manufactured Housing Tracker, a groundbreaking tool monitoring private equity and hedge fund ownership of manufactured housing communities in the U.S. 

Manufactured housing is a vital source of affordable housing for the over 21 million Americans who live in them, many of whom are on fixed incomes. Since the early 2000s, institutional investors such as private equity firms have increased their presence in the manufactured housing market. In 2020 and 2021, they accounted for 23% of all manufactured home...

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Our thoughts on this story:

What is with the states suffering from “Private Equity Derangement Syndrome”? Just about everything in America is owned by a big corporation or private equity group. But nobody cares except when it’s regarding mobile home parks. Nobody else on earth has the capital to bring old mobile home parks back to life and these states should rejoice that private equity groups are willing to risk their money to make these communities great again, not criticize them.

WNDU: Habitat for Humanity works with residents in Oak Grove Mobile Home Park to find new homes

  •    Originally released by WNDU on July 8th, 2025
  •    Commentary made on July 11th, 2025

Preview:

MISHAWAKA, Ind. (WNDU) - Big changes are coming to the east side of Mishawaka where a former mobile home park is being transformed into a new community.

But what happened to the families who once lived there?

Last time we visited the park, we were checking on a slew of feral cats set to be displaced by construction.

The majority of those cats have been given new homes but what about the people living there?

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Our thoughts on this story:

And another park bites the dust.

PESP: Owner closes Michigan mobile home park, shuts off water on remaining residents

  •    Originally released by PESP on July 8th, 2025
  •    Commentary made on July 11th, 2025

Preview:

On March 28, 2025, residents of Kristana Estates in Dewitt Township, Michigan were notified by owner TIR Equities that the park would close on April 1 and that they had to move out, shocking residents, including a man who had lived in the park for 47 years.  Then, even though some residents had not been able to leave due to the short notice, the park’s water was shut off on April 2. [1]  Residents who remained in the park have faced significant challenges and have had to stock up on bottled water.[2]

TIR Equities is a private equity company which purchased the park in 2023, and the closure is part of the company’s plan to redevelop the...

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Our thoughts on this story:

And another park bites the dust.

Missoula Current: County voices concern over mobile home park rent increase

  •    Originally released by Missoula Current on July 8th, 2025
  •    Commentary made on July 11th, 2025

Preview:

(Missoula Current) Missoula County on Tuesday joined others in voicing concern over a proposed rent increase at two mobile home parks in Missoula – an increase that would displace a number of residents on fixed incomes if it came to fruition.

Residents of the Travois Village and Harvey's mobile home park recently learned that Oak Wood Properties had planned a rent increase as high as 75%. The company has since backed down from that “staggering increase,” but any increase in rent may challenge some residents, the county said.

The rent increase punctuates the vulnerability of residents who reside in a mobile home park.

“Even small increases...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Absent from this article is the most important item: what is the actual rent and what is it planning to go to? Instead, the writer only wants to talk about the percentage of increase, which he claims to be 70%. Now if the current rent is $200 per month (just a guess) then that’s a $140 per month increase. That’s not much given how much other costs have gone up recently. In fact, housing is only the fourth highest cost for a family of 4 in Missoula (just go on the government’s own ‘budget calculator” website) with healthcare, childcare, and transportation outranking it by a wide margin, in that order. Where’s the outrage about the increase in Missoula health insurance, childcare costs, and automobile costs? Clearly, the reason the writer only wanted to talk about the percentage increase with the mobile home park is because it sounds big, but the real number probably is not that impressive.

I would refer this woke journalist to the McDonald’s McChicken story. The McChicken sandwich went up 300% in one year from $1 to $3. Isn’t that an even bigger news story since only percentage increase matters?

Santa Cruz Local: Soquel mobile home park owners seek 100 apartment redevelopment

  •    Originally released by Santa Cruz Local on July 2nd, 2025
  •    Commentary made on July 11th, 2025

Preview:

SOQUEL >> At least 10 mobile-home residents have been displaced from Soquel Gardens RV Park in the past five years, and at least six more residents could be forced to move if county officials allow its closure and accept a redevelopment plan for 100 to 120 apartments.

Amid maintenance and utility problems that prompted state citations, the 20-lot park at 4150 Soquel Drive near 41st Avenue was sold in February to the national, Stockton-based mobile-home park company Harmony Communities LLC. 

The park’s closure would require approval from the Santa Cruz County Planning Commission, according to county law. If appealed, the Santa Cruz County...

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Our thoughts on this story:

And another park bites the dust.

Fresno Bee: Fresno has a $1M fund for mobile home repairs. Why are only 2 projects done? Read more at: https://www.fresnobee.com/news/local/article309962200.html#storylink=cpy

  •    Originally released by Fresno Bee on July 7th, 2025
  •    Commentary made on July 11th, 2025

Preview:

The city of Fresno recently approved a $1 million budget to repair dilapidated mobile homes across its 27 mobile parks. But since the program relaunched in April 2024, it has only received nine applications for repairs, of which six have been approved and just two have been completed, according to the city. Galvia Juarez, a resident of the Villa Fresno mobile home park in west Fresno, applied for a repair when the program first launched in June 2023. However, she later found out she didn’t qualify because her trailer was built in 1977, and the program only covers homes built after 1980.

“It would be great if that date could be...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Because it’s the government doing it, moron. How’s that big road project in LA going? Or the rebuilding of Pacific Palisades? Give me a break.

Chicago Tribune: Residents of Blue Island mobile home park being shuttered by city say they have nowhere to go

  •    Originally released by Chicago Tribune on July 5th, 2025
  •    Commentary made on July 11th, 2025

Preview:

Pedro Rodriguez said when he moved to the Forest View Mobile Home in Blue Island 27 years ago, every trailer was filled with neighbors he knew like family.

Today, most trailers are abandoned, and about 65 people live on the mobile home property being shut down by the city of Blue Island.

Rodriguez said he is unsure where he or other mobile home residents will go, noting how expensive it is to move his trailer, not to mention losing his attachment to the community.

“I guess you gotta get used to somewhere else but after you live for so long here, you know everything around here as your own house and your own neighborhood,” Rodriguez... Read More

Our thoughts on this story:

And another park bites the dust.

St. Peter Herald: City of St. Peter partnering with nonprofit to build manufactured housing cooperative

  •    Originally released by St. Peter Herald on July 3rd, 2025
  •    Commentary made on July 11th, 2025

Preview:

The city of St. Peter is partnering with a Minnesota housing nonprofit to build a new neighborhood aimed at providing homebuyers with more affordable options.

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Our thoughts on this story:

The homes …would come in three different sizes with the smallest homes ranging between $150,000 to $200,000 and $250,000 to $325,000 for the largest.

This article is so stupid that my calculator blew up. How is this affordable? WTF. A regular mobile home park offers this exact same thing for like $70,000 for the biggest unit.

Only a non-profit committee could come up with a plan like this.

Bangor Daily news: Mobile home residents underwhelmed by new bill meant to squash rent hikes

  •    Originally released by Bangor Daily news on July 3rd, 2025
  •    Commentary made on July 11th, 2025

Preview:

In the four years since a large company bought the mobile home park where Heath Goodale lives, his monthly rent has more than doubled.

Goodale’s rent was $280 when he moved into Penney Lane Estates in Bradley in 2012. His first rent bump came in September 2021, shortly after Maine Real Estate Management bought the park. Since then, he has received seven rent increases of varying amounts, which drove his monthly payments up to $635.

While some rent hikes were small — an additional $30 each month — Goodale said they add up to a burden on the park residents, many of whom are retirees on a fixed income, single parents or those making minimum...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Yeah, I know that the folks in Maine feel like rent should be free. Perhaps they can get Momdani to run for the Governor of Maine after his New York City Mayor run is over, because he promises that all rents will be frozen forever and eventually all property will be taken away from landlords and given to the people

Anna Maria Island Sun: Pines Trailer Park residents remain in dark about park

  •    Originally released by Anna Maria Island Sun on July 7th, 2025
  •    Commentary made on July 11th, 2025

Preview:

BRADENTON BEACH – Pines Trailer Park homeowners are expressing frustration about the lack of communication as a possible park closure date looms on July 31.

A Feb. 4 email to homeowners from Fort Lauderdale-based property acquisi­tion company The Urban Group stated in part: “As you have been previously informed, and as a direct result of the community-wide damage dealt by Hur­ricanes Helene and Milton, coupled with non-payment of lot rent, Pines Trailer Park is no longer sustainable as a trailer park, and must be closed, with an official park closure date of July 31, 2025.”

That email also offered homeowners some options, which included...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Could the owner have been any more clear when he wrote to the tenants:

“As you have been previously informed, and as a direct result of the community-wide damage dealt by Hur­ricanes Helene and Milton, coupled with non-payment of lot rent, Pines Trailer Park is no longer sustainable as a trailer park, and must be closed, with an official park closure date of July 31, 2025.”

So let me make this a bit more clear: JUST GET OUT.

And, with that, another park bites the dust.

New York Post: One of the cheapest homes in the Hamptons is selling for just $275K — but there’s a good reason why

  •    Originally released by New York Post on July 7th, 2025
  •    Commentary made on July 11th, 2025

Preview:

Why pay $20,000 for a July getaway on the East End of Long Island when you can call it your own home for $275,000? 

A trailer on the southwestern corner of Southampton offers an unbeatable deal out east. The two-bedroom, 1.5-bath mobile home offers easy access to the same Westhampton beaches frequented by Adam Sandler and Maria Bartiromo for less than $300,000. 

And that asking price makes it one of the cheapest residences now for sale in the notoriously pricey region, according to the OutEast listings portal.

The 952-square-foot home in Speonk boasts a new roof, new floors, new walls and new windows, according to listing materials. Lydia...

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Our thoughts on this story:

People in the Hamptons must be really stupid because I can get you that exact same home in Missouri for $8,000. You can then put giant blow-up photos of the Hamptons’ countryside in the windows and put the $267,000 that’s left over in a CD at 4%. And that plan will save you a whole of embarrassment when you invite the neighbors over.

Lookout Santa Cruz: Long-troubled Soquel RV park faces uncertain future under controversial new owner

  •    Originally released by Lookout Santa Cruz on June 25th, 2025
  •    Commentary made on July 4th, 2025

Preview:

A long-troubled mobile home park just up the hill from Soquel Village is facing an uncertain future after it was purchased out of bankruptcy earlier this year by a company with a history of hiking rents and attempting to close parks, raising concerns about a key piece of affordable housing in the community.

Stockton-based Harmony Communities owns or operates dozens of mobile home parks throughout the western United States, most of which are in California and Oregon. It purchased Soquel Gardens Mobile Home Park in February, following years of persistent issues with the park and its facilities, culminating in the state revoking its permit...

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Our thoughts on this story:

And another park bites the dust.

Aspen Public Radio: Mobile home park residents see major traction in donations

  •    Originally released by Aspen Public Radio on June 25th, 2025
  •    Commentary made on July 4th, 2025

Preview:

After the school bus swings by Aspen-Basalt Mobile Home Park, kids spill out onto the playground in the center of the neighborhood: kicking around a soccer ball, lobbing a volleyball and narrowly avoiding windshields.

It's been this way for decades, said resident Lorena Vargas. She lives in the park with her husband and their two daughters, right next to her in-laws.

“That's something that you find throughout the mobile home park. It's pretty multi-generational,” she said. “The people we grew up with are now having their kids there, and so our kids are growing up together.”

But in March, residents of Aspen-Basalt and Mountain Valley...

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Our thoughts on this story:

The tenants have to raise $20 million to buy the parks. They’ve raised $12.6 million. They’re $7.4 million short of the goal and the time clock has just about run out. You’re not going to raise the last $7.4 million with bake sales and car washes. Once again, these tenant first options are a gigantic waste of time.

WNDU: Benton Township eyes senior living community on site of former trailer park

  •    Originally released by WNDU on June 26th, 2025
  •    Commentary made on July 4th, 2025

Preview:

BENTON TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WNDU) - The site of a former trailer park is poised to become a senior living community in Benton Township.

A sign buried behind a mangled fence and overgrown grass is all that’s left of Crystal Trailer Park.

Benton Township now owns the 10-acre plot of land.

It is in the process of creating a senior housing complex that would cater to people with a moderate income.

 

There would be 80 to 90 one story apartments and a community center.

Cathy Yates, the supervisor of Benton Charter Township, says the complex is needed.

“Some people are living on second and third floors, and even in some places without an...

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Our thoughts on this story:

And another park bites the dust.

San Jose Spotlight: San Jose tightens mobile home park rent control policy

  •    Originally released by San Jose Spotlight on June 26th, 2025
  •    Commentary made on July 4th, 2025

Preview:

San Jose is updating language in its rent control policy due to mobile home park landlords illegally raising prices on tenants living in RVs.

The city’s decades-old mobile home rent policy states property owners cannot raise rents more than 7% without city approval — but Western Trailer Park disregarded it on the grounds that recreational vehicles are not mobile homes. Housing Director Erik Soliván updated the policy earlier this month to clarify RVs are considered mobile homes on mobile home lots. RV residents live in 15 of the 58 mobile home parks within San Jose.

Jeff Scott, spokesperson for the housing department, said the official...

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Our thoughts on this story:

“Dear San Jose mobile home park owner: please tear your park down immediately and build something else on that land.” I think that’s the basic message that San Jose is sending.

South Florida Business Journal: Miami-Dade mobile home park could be replaced with apartments

  •    Originally released by South Florida Business Journal on June 25th, 2025
  •    Commentary made on July 4th, 2025

Preview:

The building would rise eight stories in an emerging neighborhood.

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Our thoughts on this story:

And another park bites the dust.

Lookout Santa Cruz: RTC’s rail trail deadline arrives, but mobile home parks haven’t moved, likely spurring at least one lawsuit

  •    Originally released by Lookout Santa Cruz on June 30th, 2025
  •    Commentary made on July 4th, 2025

Preview:

In the regional transportation commission’s ongoing pursuit of a rail and trail system, one of the starkest dividing lines can be found between two Mid-County mobile parks. 

Literally: From above, the east-to-west tracks of the old Santa Cruz Branch Rail Line look like a series of vertebrae bisecting the properties of the Blue & Gold Star Mobile Home Park and the Castle Mobile Estates park. But also politically: Between the two parks, parts of homes or fence lines on 44 lots encroach into the rail line property, which is owned by the Santa Cruz County Regional Transportation Commission. In order for the RTC to build its long-envisioned Read More

Our thoughts on this story:

And another two mobile home parks bite the dust.

ABC 7 Chicago: Blue Island shutting down embattled mobile home park, residents don't know what's next

  •    Originally released by ABC 7 Chicago on July 2nd, 2025
  •    Commentary made on July 4th, 2025

Preview:

BLUE ISLAND, Ill. (WLS) -- Dozens of residents in south suburban Blue Island could soon be without homes.

The city said it's shutting down an embattled mobile home park after years of unpaid water bills and code violations.

Thursday is the deadline the city of Blue Island has given to the owners of Forest View Mobile Home Park to come up with a plan to shut the property down.

Officials have said the city has spent two years trying to get management to clean up its act. Its residents are now caught in the middle, unsure where they will go.

The park is currently made up of empty lots, broken up streets and abandoned and stripped-down...

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Our thoughts on this story:

And another park bites the dust.

Bloomberg Law: Manufactured Home Energy Standard Rule’s Start Delayed by Judge

  •    Originally released by Bloomberg Law on July 2nd, 2025
  •    Commentary made on July 4th, 2025

Preview:

Manufactured housing groups won their bid to stop the July 1 enforcement of energy conservation standards expected to be replaced by a new Energy Department rule in the near-but-unspecified future.

That period of limbo for the rule’s compliance deadline will cause irreparable harm, Judge David A. Ezra of the US District Court for the Western District of Texas said Monday.

The Manufactured Housing Institute and the Texas Manufactured Housing Association in 2023 challenged a DOE rule that set conservation standards for duct and air sealing, insulation installation, service hot water systems, and other building... Read More

Our thoughts on this story:

This environmental law is a leftover of the Biden administration and should be flushed down the toilet ASAP. I’m glad that the TMHA took the helm in getting this idiocy stopped.