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...

Three women sitting around a kitchen table in Great Falls didn’t know each other before a shared predicament brought them together.

"What was that nickname they gave us … the three little ladies from Great Falls, or three nice ladies, or something," Vivian Rambo asks.

Rambo is reminiscing with Cindy Newman and Jan Bailey about their road trips to the Montana Legislature last winter. The women are all retired and in their 70s. They’re also manufactured homeowners living on rented lots, and they want more legal protection.

The company that owns Newman’s park increased rents for new tenants from $288 per month to $825 per month after buying...

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...

The Columbia City Council approved the annexation of Woodstock Mobile Home Park into city limits, which requires many residents to establish a sewer connection with the city. Woodstock is expected to foot the bill.

Half of the 208 mobile homes on the property are already hooked up to the city’s sewer system. The others are serviced by two on-site sewage treatment facilities that are noncompliant with the Missouri Department of Natural Resources’ standards, according to a city staff report to the council.

“Had the existing on-site package treatment facilities been compliant with DNR requirements, the park would have been capable of...

Michigan has the second-most manufactured home parks owned by private equity in the nation, according to research from the Private Equity Stakeholder Project and Manufactured Housing Action.

The state has 192 parks, accounting for 50,626 home sites, owned by private equity firms and hedge funds.

Only Florida has a higher share, with 269 parks made up of 64,354 home sites. Texas trails Michigan, with 148 parks with 31,265 home sites.

The research shows a disproportionate share of private equity-owned manufactured housing, with firms owning more than one in every four manufactured homes in the state.

This marks a slight increase from 2020...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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.

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...

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

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...

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...

(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...

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?

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...

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

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...

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...