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Post Independent: Is resident ownership realistic? Some organizations see need for mobile-home-park rent control

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Voces Unidas-backed bill stalled at Capitol; Roaring Fork Valley’s 3-Mile residents forge ahead

Editor’s note: This is the closing installment of a story by Aspen Journalism that has been published in two parts, beginning on Sept. 25. Visit aspenjournalism.org to read the story in its entirety.

A key policy goal stated in a recent study of local and statewide mobile home parks is to give residents the opportunity to purchase their parks before owners decide to list them.

But that opportunity is very limited under legislation intended to help residents become owners, which first passed in 2020 and mandates a 120-day timeframe for residents...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Basically the same article as above. What happens is that these non-profits get with the media and start to do a ton of articles trying to persuade elected officials that their dumb ideas are actually genius. Unfortunately, all of the facts shown above hold true regardless of how you sugar-coat it, and that’s why the chances of pulling off a resident-owned community will remain at 0.013%. You have better odds of winning the lottery at the gas station.

Marin Independent Journal: Novato council opens door to sell mobile home park to its residents

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A month after the Novato City Council declined a $30 million offer to sell a city-owned mobile home park to a private operator last month, the council opened the door this week to a new option — to sell the park to its residents.

On Tuesday, the City Council voted unanimously to authorize City Manager Adam McGill to enter into an exclusive negotiating agreement with the Marin Valley Mobile Country Club’s operating group should it express a desire to purchase the park.

The park is owned by the city but operated by the Park Acquisition Company, or PAC, which is led by park residents.

McGill stressed that the agreement is only meant to open...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Yes, you’re not going crazy. This is the fourth article this week stating that resident-owned communities contain unicorns and free ice cream and the whole world would be better if every park was owned by the residents. Is it working? Are you brainwashed yet? Or are you kind of “gosh, this is stupid”?

Spectrum News 1: Manufactured homes could be a viable solution to affordable housing shortage

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LEXINGTON, Ky. — The Kentucky League of Cities (KLC) conference is occurring in Lexington at The Central Bank Center. It brings cities across Kentucky together, connecting them with services and finding potential solutions to issues facing their respective municipality.

One of those issues is lack of housing, especially affordable housing. At the conference, city stakeholders from across the Commonwealth could view a manufactured model home. Those homes could be completed within a matter of days, rather than months.

Logan Hanes, with Kentucky Manufactured Homes Institute, said despite the quick construction time, these homes have the same...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Clearly this writer has no idea how the real-world works:

“I think a lot of these improvements in that industry have gone unnoticed by local officials, planning administrators, those who write those ordinances and regulations. I think it may be time to take a fresh look at that”

No, it’s not the fresh look of mobile home parks that will open the floodgates to new construction. The reason virtually no city in the U.S. allows for the construction of new mobile home parks is simply because they cost the city a ton of money on school tuition and city services while bringing in only a fraction of their cost in property tax. Since almost all U.S. cities are having a cash-flow shortage it’s fully understandable why they view new mobile home parks as economic suicide.

Petaluma Argus Courier: Editorial: Petaluma mobile home park owners must prove financial hardship

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It was a despondent sight last week as the residents of Youngstown Mobile Home Park gathered on the corner of North McDowell Boulevard, protest signs clutched in hand. A similar scene played out on Aug. 29 at Little Woods Mobile Villa on Lakeville Highway.

At both protests, there was an air of desperation — these aren’t people fighting for a principle, they are fighting for their homes.

The owner of the Youngstown Mobile Home Park called for its closure shortly after the city capped rent increases at mobile home parks to 4% of current rates, or by 70% of the Bay Area Consumer Price Index, whichever is less.

“Some people have ended up in...

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Our thoughts on this story:

These articles just keep getting ever more ridiculous. Here’s a case of a private property owner shutting down a park as the result of rent control, and the residents wanting them to prove how not raising rents is a hardship before they can tear the park down – as though the owner has any legal requirement to get their approval.

“It was a despondent sight last week as the residents of Youngstown Mobile Home Park gathered on the corner of North McDowell Boulevard, protest signs clutched in hand. A similar scene played out on Aug. 29 at Little Woods Mobile Villa on Lakeville Highway.

At both protests, there was an air of desperation — these aren’t people fighting for a principle, they are fighting for their homes.

The owner of the Youngstown Mobile Home Park called for its closure shortly after the city capped rent increases at mobile home parks to 4% of current rates, or by 70% of the Bay Area Consumer Price Index, whichever is less.

“Some people have ended up in the hospital because of all the fear and anxiety,” Mary Ruppenthal, a park resident since 1987, told the Argus-Courier. “We tried to allay their fears and calm them down, but none of us know for sure what's going to come of it all.”

I know that 70% of Millennials have said they would vote for a socialist candidate (that study came out during the Bernie Sanders campaign) but here’s a painful fact: property owners have the right to do whatever they want with their property. Really want to stop parks from being torn down? Then embrace much higher rents as that’s the only shot you have. Otherwise, there are few parks out there that might not be more profitable as apartment complexes which rent for an average of $2,000 per month when parks average $300. Rent control is a death sentence for mobile home parks, which have rents so low that they’re not sustainable. Any sensible person understands this.

Iowa Capital Dispatch: DNR issues fines for asbestos violations at mobile home park and former school

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An eastern Iowa mobile home park demolished some of its homes without testing them for asbestos and did not dispose of them in a way to prevent asbestos exposure of its residents, according to the Iowa Department of Natural Resources.

The demolitions at Fawn Creek Court in Anamosa last year spawned two of four fines totaling more than $30,000 that the DNR recently levied for asbestos violations. The other two fines stemmed from demolition of a former school building in Lost Nation.

Generally, buildings that are set for demolition or significant renovation are required by federal and state law to be tested for asbestos. It is a fibrous...

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Our thoughts on this story:

This is one of the dumbest articles of 2023 – on a number of levels:

Dumb #1:  mobile homes contain virtually no asbestos and everyone knows it. The article admits that the only possible areas of concern would be “window caulking, window glaze and roof paint” – which effectively equals zero. A regular stick-built house of the right vintage would have asbestos throughout, from the roof shingles to the insulation to the flooring.

Dumb #2:  the mobile homes in question were never proven to have any asbestos in any possible way.

Dumb #3:  the park owner was then fined for tearing the homes down without asbestos testing – even though they had no asbestos in all likelihood (and I’m betting the baseless testing costs more than the demolition).

Dumb #4:  this whole issue with asbestos has been blown completely out of context for decades. Everyone knows that. Asbestos litigation originated with workers who inhaled asbestos in factories 8 hours a day. At that level, you can potentially have health hazards. But how in the world can anyone have serious ramifications from the incredibly tiny amount of asbestos from supposed ‘window caulking” which they might be exposed to – assuming they were standing next to the home being demolished and deliberately breathing in every fume they could find? Here’s what I found on the internet regarding the phobia over asbestos:

The definitive article exposing fraud in the diagnosis of asbestosis was by Gitlin et al. of Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. In this study published in 2004 films read by plaintiffs’ radiologists were compared to the readings of the same films by independent radiologists. The plaintiffs’ radiologists read 95.9% of the films positive for abnormalities that were compensable for pulmonary asbestosis. The independent radiologists who were unaware of the readings by the plaintiffs’ radiologists read the same set of films as positive in only 4.5% of cases.1

A couple of examples of massive fraud perpetrated by doctors reading films for asbestosis attorneys highlight how expert witnesses can abuse the legal process and undermine the search for truth and justice. One doctor, Ray Harron, personally diagnosed 51,048 asbestos claims. He diagnosed a record number of 515 people in one day, which amounts to one diagnosis per minute. Another doctor, Ray Segarra, a pulmonologist diagnosed 29,000 claims of asbestosis. He estimates that he has made about $10 million doing this work. When questioned on National Public Radio about his readings of chest x-rays, Segarra replied, “I’m certainly not a schemer at all…but am I an opportunistic? I suppose I am. But everybody is.”

I rest my case.

The News & Observer: Mobile home tenants press Cary council candidates to do more on affordable housing

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Four months ago, Enir Oseguera moved with his young family to one of Cary’s last affordable housing communities, The immigrant father had been saving money and thought he’d found a place where his two children could be safe and thrive at Chatham Estates, a diverse mobile home park where rent is $400 a month.

Soon after the move, however, Oseguera learned the park property was for sale, putting hundreds of people who live there at risk of displacement and homelessness. “What do we do?” he asked. “We all know the cost of renting an apartment even nowadays and then buying property, well, that’s more of a question for many people.”

At a Cary...

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Our thoughts on this story:

A park owner got a giant offer of $50 million to demolish the mobile home park and put it to a more profitable use. They notified the residents, who now are trying to organize politically to somehow match the offer, naming their group “One Wake” (which maybe should have been “One Woke”?). Of course, this concept has a zero percent chance of ever happening as no non-profit is ever going to spend $250,000 per household to buy the park – and any sensible person would understand that.

Kearney Hub: How residents of an Ashland mobile home court dealt with displacement

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ASHLAND — A new year is supposed to represent rebirth, a clean slate, a chance to set new goals. Less than a week into 2023, the plans made for the coming year by residents of El Rancho, a mobile home court in Ashland, were scrapped when a letter dropped in their mailboxes.

Upon opening the letter, residents in the court’s nearly 30 mobile homes were notified that El Rancho had been sold to an investment group named Ashland Development, LLC. Soon after, residents learned that the LLC’s plan was to have the five-acre property converted to bare ground by August.

Residents would be given until July 31 to vacate the premises.

“I’m not a...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Another article about a park being torn down for a more profitable use. Week after week I remind viewers that low rents = homelessness. Apparently not enough people read this.

KOTA TV: Mobile Home residents continue to face conflict with management

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RAPID CITY, S.D. (KOTA) - About a month ago we reported on complaints made by residents of Prairie Acres Estates. They claimed requests to repair various things on their lots were unreasonable and inconsistent. On Wednesday, more tenants came forward to share how the process is affecting them.

When we first reported on this story, the main issue most tenants had was how consistent the guidelines for the park were.

The park management claims that repairs are part of the tenants’ lease and management is holding them accountable to that agreement.

Tenants claim repairs are requested and upon completion, they receive another list of repairs.

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Our thoughts on this story:

This exchange between the owner and the residents explains the basic problem with these type of articles:

“We’ve been sitting waiting for over a year for them to do it because they evicted our neighbor over little things with his house and he was working on it too he was working on cleaning up his house and yard and everything and they just booted him,” said Kylee Koller, a resident in Prairie Acres Estates.

Erick Pickar, an attorney representing Prairie Acres Estates says management is willing to be accommodating to tenants who communicate with management. Pickar adds that evictions will always be their last course of action.

Tenants disagree, we spoke with one tenant who says they have been communicating with management and still feels there are no options but to comply or leave.

“I got that paper of fourteen things to do I looked over it I can’t afford to do the things that they want so we decided to just get an apartment cause I don’t really have lots of choices,” said Koller.

So who do you believe on this? I’m pretty sure the homes in question are in terrible condition and the owner is simply trying to make them do the basics of proper painting and skirting with a yard free of trash – not unreasonable requests. I bet it’s a really, really low bar. And, of course, the owner will lose thousands of dollars in evicting tenants in lost rent, legal cost, and re-filling the lot if it really comes to that. But at a certain point the owner simply has no choice if he is trying to bring the park back to life and attract new residents of a higher caliber. If this article included photos of the homes in question. I imagine there would be no doubt that I’m correct.

Autoevolution: Step Inside the $239K Phillips House With Nearly 600 Square Feet of Pure Luxury

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If tiny homes require certain compromises in order to meet their primary goal of maximum freedom and mobility, park model homes come with the unquestionable advantage of spaciousness. One of the custom park model homes built by Movable Roots, the Phillips boasts no less than 580 square feet (53.8 square meters) of living space, including two lofts, resulting in a true mansion on wheels.

The fact that its owners had had previous experience with living in an RV full-time helped them envision the perfect mobile home. This is how the Phillips was born – a dreamy, ultra-comfortable family home with gorgeous interiors and ultra-modern...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Come on – do you really think a 400 sq. ft. home for $220,000 is a great deal? That’s $500 per square foot – roughly ten times more than a mobile home costs. Sticking a piece of LED lighting on a wall doesn’t really change that fact. If you have a budget of $220,000 – and this is the best idea you can come up with – you need to move to the Midwest.

Post Independent: Organizing mobile-home owners as investors gobble up parks

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Like a lot of his neighbors, John Sullivan looks down his Apple Tree Park street and across the Colorado River toward the small Western Slope town of New Castle and wonders about the future.

The 290-space mobile home park where he has lived for 25 years has one of the more picturesque settings among the 50 or so such parks, large and small, that dot the region from Aspen to Parachute.

The streets and yards are lined with mature trees to provide ample shade in the summer, and there’s a good-sized community park where children can play and families gather for picnics. Many of the spaces even overlook the river — albeit with Interstate 70...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Connect the dots from these passages:

It’s part of an ownership trend away from family-owned trailer parks (as they used to be called) — often built by farming and ranching families as a way to bring in additional income through rents and to help house workers for large public works projects in the mid- to late 20th century — and toward out-of-state real estate investment interests.

The move away from local ownership has brought new rules for many park tenants, such as limiting the number of sheds and other exterior structures they are allowed to have, ensuring fences are stained and in good repair, and getting rid of junk cars and recreational vehicles or finding another place to store them. The rules are meant to clean things up in terms of the parks’ appearance. But they can be onerous, not to mention expensive for people who are just scraping by

Having grown up and continuing to reside at the Cottonwood Springs Mobile Home Park, near Rifle, Muñoz said he’s used to rent increases, but usually no more than $10 or $15 a year. So, you go from paying maybe $410 to $425 in a year, where some of these corporate-owned parks are jumping from $400 to $500 or $600 in a single year,” he said. “And we don’t have any sort of legislation to prohibit that.”

So all this article is really about is that some tenants hate rent increases and rules enforcement. But how can you bring old parks back to life and make them nice without those two factors? The answer is: you can’t.

Those who want to live in filth and squalor because it’s cheap need to go to those type of properties. But the majority of tenants – 99% of them – want to live in a nice, updated property and pay higher rent for the right to do so. Don’t let this tiny minority of residents dictate and ruin the quality of life for the majority. It’s just plain stupid.

New Castle News: New management takes over troubled Pulaski mobile home park

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Since taking over management at Heritage Hills Mobile Home Estates in mid-August, Chana Kolpien and her husband have chopped down window-high grass, dealt with broken water lines and gathered tons of garbage.

“We’re on our third 20-yard roll-off,” said Kolpien, who is also getting bids to remove vacant trailers.

She must first determine which mobile homes are occupied or unoccupied.

“There’s supposed to be 91 living (occupied) homes,” Kolpien said Wednesday. “In my opinion, 18 for sure need pulled out and there’s probably another 15 that need (taken out).”

During the early August Pulaski Township supervisors meeting, Heritage Hills...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Wow, an article that is actually accurate! Finally!

Peak: City of Powell River staff want modular, mobile home distinction

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City of Powell River staff members are suggesting bylaw updates to distinguish between modular and mobile homes.

At the September 12 committee of the whole meeting, manager of planning services Daniella Fergusson outlined a report to council, which stated that factory-built or prefabricated houses include manufactured homes assembled on site. Her report stated that in recent years, staff have received more enquiries from the public about the possibility of building modular housing, however, city bylaws currently discourage that construction.

“The focus of this report is to consider bylaw updates to our official community plan, the zoning...

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Our thoughts on this story:

I think you’re going to see more of this type of action in the years ahead as people figure out that a modular home – properly designed – looks no different than a stick-built. It makes no sense that a homebuilder can’t get portions of the home made in a factory (roof trusses, for example) where they can be made to higher tolerances and lower cost. Once that breaks loose then all of the mobile home manufacturing capacity will be changed over to modular components and the factories will go back to three shifts again. It’s just a matter of time.

KUT 90.5: Austin to change land rules to expand where people can live in RVs and tiny homes

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Home living in Austin just got a little smaller — well, for some.

In another move to create more attainable places to live, the Austin City Council on Thursday gave a thumbs up on changing land rules to allow people to live in an RV or tiny home in more places across the city.

The city already allows residents to store these properties on their land. The proposed rule would allow people to hook up utilities to a tiny home or RV so they could live in it without it being in a mobile home park, campground or other designated area.

Austin has become increasingly expensive for working-class families, pushing many to the city's outskirts. Over...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Maybe they should change the signs to read “Welcome to Austin where the homeowners are terrified” – because they should be. If you can now place an RV or tiny home on basically any residential lot then everybody in Austin is going to see a huge decline in property values. Imagine the $1 million McMansion with an old $500 travel trailer next door (including two non-running cars and three hound dogs). Another Texas city (Houston) learned the hard way that this is just plain idiocy.

Times of San Diego: Mobile-Home Park in El Cajon Attracts Multiple Offers Before Selling for $4.4M

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A mobile home park on 1.65 acres in East County has been sold for $4.4 million, according to a real estate brokerage.

Shady Lane Mobile Home & RV Park, with 41 spaces for manufactured homes, is located at 244 Shady Lane in El Cajon.

“Shady Lane Mobile Home & RV Park was a Watkins family generational asset,” said Dustin Wilmer, vice president of investments in Marcus & Millichap’s San Diego Del Mar office. “The property had not traded hands since 1981 and this was the first time it has ever been advertised for sale.”

Wilmer said the property attracted 10 offers within its first 72 hours on the market. He represented the seller, a limited...

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Our thoughts on this story:

41 spaces on 1.65 acres might just set a new density world record for a mobile home park. And the seller got over $100,000 per lot for this property? Wow, I don’t get California investing at all.

Standard: Lesley’s Mobile Home residents are gone, but their rundown units remain

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RIVERDALE — The former residents of Lesley’s Mobile Home Park in Riverdale are long gone, forced out so the land can be redeveloped

But many of the units they occupied, some extremely dilapidated, remain, apparently to the chagrin of some residents and city officials. The units, most too old to be reused, are to be razed and removed. It’s just not clear when that will happen, though Mayor Braden Mitchell indicates the arrival of the machinery needed to complete the cleanup work is looming.

“I just found out (Friday) that they plan on starting to bring in the heavy equipment in the next week or two,” he said in a message Saturday to the...

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Our thoughts on this story:

You can’t even apparently redevelop a mobile home park without the neighboring residents complaining. The 5.5 acre tract is being converted from a mobile home park to a 155 unit apartment complex. The parcel is fenced off with “under construction” signs all around it. And yet the neighbors complain to the media of what an eyesore it still is. Is there anything more hated by the average American than a mobile home park? Doubtful.

WRAL News: More than 100 Cary families could be forced out of homes if land is sold

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A big plot of land in Cary is up for sale, and the purchase could displace dozens of businesses and more than 100 families who live behind a busy shopping center.

Chatham Estates is considered one of the few remaining affordable mobile home communities in Cary, but it's on the market along with the shopping center surrounding it.

Chatham Square includes about 50 businesses, with many catering to their neighbors.

The community is home to an estimated 700 people. It covers 40 acres on the corner of East Chatham Street and Maynard Road near downtown Cary. Additionally, about 50 small businesses are in the shopping center.

They’re part of a...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Another park re-development story. The bottom line is that only higher lot rents save parks from the wrecking ball.

News 4 Jax: ‘Something is not right’: Mobile park home tenants demand answers after unusually high water bills

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JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Nearly a dozen tenants of a local mobile home park are sharing their concerns over unusually high water bills after the News4JAX I-TEAM reported the case of a disabled veteran who was being threatened with eviction if she didn’t pay a $2,200 water bill.

Several residents at the Three Seasons Mobile Home Park off Collins Road said they have also been forced to pay outrageous water bills in fear of being evicted.

One of the residents, who didn’t want to be identified for fear of retaliation from the property managers, said they have been receiving these high water bills for years. The residents pay their landlord at the...

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Our thoughts on this story:

I know nothing about the tenant, the metering system, or the billing methodology. But can a tenant use $1,000 per month in water? Absolutely. If you have two bathrooms and both toilet flappers are broken you could accomplish this easily. Or if you fill up a commercial water tank on a trailer all night several times a week (a common tool if you are a landscaper, paver or mobile car wash) then you could easily exceed $1,000. There are two sides to every story and you are only hearing one so far.

Petaluma Argus Courier: Mobile home tenants protest threats of rent hikes, closure

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Residents of Petaluma’s Youngstown Mobile Home Park held a protest Tuesday afternoon in response to threats of rent hikes and closure, even as the city strengthens protections for renters.

About 100 protesters gathered outside the mobile home park on North McDowell Boulevard, holding signs denouncing the park owners’ actions over the past few months, which have included converting the park from seniors-only to all-ages residents, threatening park closure, and attempting to raise their rents by more than $900 a month, residents said.

“When I moved in here I thought, ‘I can relax, I can retire,’” said Youngstown resident Danny Morton. He...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Look, I know the media would like to convince us otherwise, but America is still a free country and this property owner can certainly tear the park down and redevelop it if they want to. It’s called basic American property law. The residents can protest all they like, but at the end of the day a mobile home park is a business and if the land is worth more in a different use then it’s going to be redeveloped. The property owner is not bluffing and threatening – just telling the truth. The media, in this case, is giving false hope.

The Ithaca Voice: Trumansburg mobile home park receives $5.7 million grant

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ITHACA, N.Y.—Efforts to make improvements to a manufactured home community on the west side of the village of Trumansburg just got a $5.7 million boost.

The New York State Homes and Community Renewal (NYS HCR) issued the grant to support Ithaca Neighborhood Housing Services’ (INHS) endeavor to rehabilitate and enhance infrastructure and amenities at the Compass Manufactured Housing Community, also known as a mobile home park. The award was announced in a press release Tuesday morning.

Technically, the award was made to Better Housing for Tompkins County, which tends to focus on more rural projects within the INHS umbrella. Once a separate...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Governor Kathy Hochul and a bunch of other New York bureaucrats spent $9 million to buy and renovate a mobile home park that currently serves around 100 families. That’s around $100,000 per household spent. I looked up Realtor.com and found that there are pretty nice houses for sale in Trumansburg, NY for about $150,000. Kathy could have given each household $100,000 in cash and then co-signed a $50,000 mortgage and these folks could have elevated their standard of living 1,000% at no greater cost to taxpayers. Once again, bad decision making with the only goal of virtue signalling.

VPM: Chesterfield mobile home park could be a ‘model’ for revitalization

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Nonprofit Project:HOMES purchased Bermuda Estates in 2020 and has worked with residents to address the park's needs.

This is part two of a two-part housing series from VPM News Focal Point.

On a hot summer evening, Alvaro and Rebecca Hernandez tend to their bountiful garden.

Tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers fill the plots around the Hernandez home at Bermuda Estates, a manufactured housing community in Chesterfield County. Like the Hernandez’s garden, the neighborhood is flourishing, too, thanks to long-awaited investment and new nonprofit ownership that has committed to working with residents on the park’s revival.

“I feel happy and...

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Our thoughts on this story:

A non-profit buys a 50-space mobile home park for a total package price of around $6 million (original price plus improvements) and saves the residents from the evil park owner and they live forever in a land of unicorns and pixie dust. Sheer genius, right? Well, they could just have given each resident $120,000 cash to go buy a nicer stick-built dwelling with zero lot rent (the lot rent is $483 per month). I can’t believe that I’m apparently the only one that sees these type of virtue signaling events make no economic sense. Either the folks who fund these non-profits have poor math skills or have never looked at Realtor.com.

Wood TV: Nonprofit buys mobile home parks to help with affordable housing

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GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — A new property acquisition is helping a West Michigan nonprofit continue its fight against homelessness in the community.

Putting an end to homelessness is the mission of Family Promise of West Michigan.

“There’s families you see all over town and you don’t realize the need that they have, in terms of their housing insecurity,” said Lisa Valk, Chief Operating Officer at Family Promise of West Michigan. “We want every family, every child in our community to go from insecurely housed to securely housed.”

One of the nonprofit’s programs, Partners in Housing, allows Family Promise to rehab manufactured homes. They...

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Our thoughts on this story:

So the non-profit spent $7 million cash for two mobile home parks with the intention of using the cash flow to buy more parks. Knowing how the world works, I’m assuming the non-profit bought these for a 5% cap rate and the two properties have an EBITDA of maybe $350,000 per year. That’s if they collected the rent and knew how to run a park, which they don’t. So the EBITDA may be more like $175,000 per year. And that means they will be able to buy a new park about every 20 years or so. Not exactly the potent force in housing they are claiming. Seen it all before.

CBS Colorado: More than 10 families of Wikiup mobile home park face evictions

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More than 10 families living in the Wikiup mobile home park are being evicted. According to a spokesperson for the community, owned by RHP Properties, residents are not following the rules.

Tomasa Hernandez and her family are one of those families being asked to leave. She says this puts them in a bind since this is all they can afford.

The family adds they've always paid their rent on time, but now they're being asked to leave by mid-September.

"I spend my time crying because I am always thinking, where am I going to go with my kids and my sick husband?" cried Hernandez.

To make ends meet, Hernandez sells fruit and vegetables on weekends...

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Our thoughts on this story:

There is no evil agenda going on here. The statement from the resident:

"When we realized we had a court date it was already too late, and they sent us an eviction notice, I think they want me to leave because I didn't remove the fence, they said my curtains are ugly and they told me to clean outside because it was messy," said Hernandez.

And now the statement from the park owner:

"Our priority at Wikiup is to provide a safe, well-maintained, and affordable community for our residents. We work with residents when there are violations to the rules and regulations of the community that present health and safety concerns for them and other residents.  If after repeated requests and notifications, residents fail to address those violations, for the sake of all residents, and as required under Colorado law, management, as a last resort, must take necessary legal steps to ensure compliance."

The bottom line is that the resident broke the rules, refused to fix the issues even after notification, and then the park owner gave up and evicted them for the good of the entire community at large.

It’s important to remember here that evicting any resident costs the park owner thousands of dollars: 1) legal cost 2) cessation of lot rent 3) demolition of the home. It is very rare for a park owner to evict for rules violations unless it’s a very serious case. There are two sides to every story and the writer of this article gave 99% of the benefit of the doubt to the resident and 1% to the park owner – and that’s clearly unfair.

Basically just more poor journalism that is simply geared to pander to their base at the exclusion of fairness.

The U.S. Sun: Inside $3.8million tiny home community where children can get larger housing but residents wish ‘stigma would go away’

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A TINY home community has brought peace of mind to residents in a small town, but efforts to continue to build out the housing solution have stalled in partisanship.

Lilac Homes - a tiny home community in Kennewick, Washington - opened 16 homes to people in need in 2022.

The Kennewick Housing Authority procured $3.8million to develop a tiny home community on an acre of land, according to the local CBS affiliate KEPRTV.

The housing authority aimed to provide shelter for historically marginalized communities in the neighborhood.

"We are going to be able to house individuals who we have targeted," Lona Hammer, a representative of the housing...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Look at the photo and tell me that you would honestly not freak out if this went in next to your neighborhood? Of course you would. Why would bureaucrats and non-profits be shocked when neighborhoods push back against this type of development? This doesn’t even look good in the photo, which no doubt was staged by a PR firm to be at the most attractive angle.

VPM: Louisa mobile home residents living in ‘precarious position’

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Residents are pushing back against the investment firm that bought land beneath their trailers.

This is part one of a two-part housing series from VPM News Focal Point.

The trailer that Gabino Felipe owns at Six-0-Five Village Mobile Home Park is one of the only places his family can afford to live in Louisa County.

But Felipe might soon be priced out of the place he has called home for the past six years, as a nationwide trend threatens one of Virginia’s most affordable remaining sources of housing. Pending lawsuits could stave off a steep rent hike that residents allege violated their lease terms and state law. But a ruling in their...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Bestplaces.net tells me that Louisa County, Virginia has a median home price of $299,700 and a three-bedroom apartment rent of $1,440 per month. So here’s what’s maddening about this article:

“In December, Six-0-Five’s management tried to raise lot rents by more than 40%. The increase would have meant Felipe’s monthly rent payment increased from $445 to $625.”

So the rent is going up $180 per month to $625 and somehow that’s going to render these residents homeless? At $625 that’s less than half of apartment rents.

I would contend that anyone who cannot afford $625 per month needs to immediately move out of Louisa County and move to someplace less expensive. There are many counties in the Midwest where housing costs are half that amount. But the era of mobile home park owners subsidizing residents (which is what’s happening when the owner does not charge market rents) is ending. It reminds me of the current homeowner insurance issues in Florida. If you can’t afford insanely high insurance on your house, you need to move to a place you can afford – but the insurance companies are no longer going to subsidize you living on the beach.

The Islander Classifieds: Closure: Island developer declares ownership of Pines Park

Preview:

The new owner of the Pines Trailer Park has spoken.

Louis Najmy of the Najmy Thompson law firm released a statement on Sept. 8 on behalf of island developer and businessman Shawn Kaleta regarding the purchase of the mobile home park at 103 Church Ave., Bradenton Beach.

The announcement was much-anticipated — and the owner highly speculated — since the announcement in January that the park owners intended to sell.

The statement read: “Prime Vacations, founded, built, and run by local entrepreneur, Shawn Kaleta, is proud to announce it has orchestrated the purchase of Pines Trailer Park, one of the most unique island waterfront parks in...

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Our thoughts on this story:

This group paid $16 million for less than three acres. Do you seriously think this is going to stay a mobile home park? I will bet $100 that there is something entirely different on top of this land by the end of the decade (which is about how long it may take to get the necessary permits and approvals to build something else on this land). If you assume a density of 12 units per acre, that would be like spending $450,000 per lot. Not sure how that computes except as a development site.