The White House is weighing a range of executive actions to authorize and expand protections for renters, who pay a high share of their income toward housing nationwide and face little prospect of relief from the new Congress.

Measures being mulled by senior Biden administration officials include sealing eviction records, standardizing rental leases and promoting a right to counsel for tenants facing off with landlords in housing court. Another possibility could be a federal campaign to curb discrimination against affordable housing voucher holders based on their source of income, a practice challenged as a fair housing violation.

A...

Owners of local condominiums and manufactured homes will now be notified when construction projects are proposed near them in the City of Sequim.

Previously, land and property owners within 300 feet of the proposed project would be notified of an application and pending meetings and comment periods.

City staff said they’ve received requests for the change as condo and manufactured homeowners own the structures but not the land — so they weren’t being notified.

Sequim city councilors unanimously approved an ordinance change at their Jan. 9 meeting to update Sequim Municipal Code (chapter 20.01).

Councilors directed staff on Dec. 12 to make...

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — When Mike Runnells moved to Bullitt County in 2020, it was his refuge from a divided city. The Army veteran had been living in Louisville’s west end, where the highly controversial police shooting death of Breonna Taylor had led to ongoing, nightly protests that sometimes brought crowds of police and protesters past his Portland home. 

•  Residents of Live Oaks in Mt. Washington have seen regular rent increases and ownership changes
•  With each new owner, new rent and regulations follow
•  Some residents have rent-to-own agreements with a previous owner, but they aren't being honored
• The Census...

Construction has been going forward full steam ahead at the west end of Hafen Lane in Mesquite. Nearly two years after receiving approval from the city, the Mesquite Trails RV Park is beginning to really take shape.

The site grading on the 20-acre parcel is completed, and the utility connections for the 193-space RV park have been installed. The first of three buildings to be built on the site has gone vertical. Work has also begun on the central recreational hub of the park including a large clubhouse, swimming pool, pickleball courts and various other recreational amenities.

The entrance of the park will be off of Hafen Lane. A new road...

You have to wonder how some people sleep at night.

Especially people like the owners of Valley Community, the trailer park at Fruitvale Boulevard and North 16th Avenue in Yakima.

Since taking over the small park in 2021, Hurst & Son — a Port Orchard-based company that deals in real estate investment, property management, construction — has raised rent from $350 a month to $600 in the past year. They’re also limiting tenants’ water use, and they no longer pay for garbage services.

Why? No reason, apparently — they just can. The YH-R tried repeatedly to reach the company but got no responses to numerous emails and phone calls.

Residents...

Dec. 6 was a big day for Santa Rosa mobile homeowners who’d spent months or even years advocating for tighter limits on rent increases in their parks.

After almost two decades, the City Council voted to update and restrict how much mobile home park owners can raise rent each year on the land under residents’ homes.

Previously, Santa Rosa’s mobile home rent control, which is governed by different laws than other housing, was tied to 100% of the Consumer Price Index (CPI), the measure of prices for goods and services paid by consumers with a 6% cap. For 2023, that would have been 5.7%.

After negotiations between residents and owners...

The hunt for yield has pushed private equity firms and professional investors into new segments of the real estate market.

In recent years, sophisticated investors have snapped up multi-family units and single-family homes. Now, corporate landlords are targeting the most cost-effective segment of the real estate market: mobile home parks.

• Mitt Romney says a billionaire tax will trigger demand for these two physical assets — get in now before the super-rich swarm

• You could be the landlord of Walmart, Whole Foods and Kroger (and collect fat grocery store-anchored income on a quarterly basis)

• What do Ashton Kutcher and a...

ROCHESTER — A potential agreement with four residents at Bob’s Trailer Park is in the works more than a month after they lost running water in their trailers.

“Two weeks should be sufficient time to iron out a few details,” Rochester attorney Travis Ohly told Olmsted County District Court referee Erin Felten during an online hearing Tuesday.

Ohly, who represents the property owner, Pennsylvania-based TSJ Parks LLC, said work has started in an agreement, but final terms couldn’t be reached Tuesday.

Court staff said negotiations were the cause of an approximately one-hour delay for Tuesday’s hearing, which was attended by TSJ Parks member...

If you have a favorite cashier at the store, or a favorite nurse’s aide at the nursing home who takes care of your mother, or you belong to a veterans association, you might know someone who lives in a mobile home park in Iowa. If you do, they, like me, are either already in trouble, or headed that way. Here’s why.

Mobile home parks are the largest source of unsubsidized affordable housing in the U.S. The residents own their homes, but not the land their homes are on. So, they must pay lot rent every month to the park owners. Therein lies the problem.

Several years ago, out-of-state investment firms started buying up MHPs in Iowa and...

Large investors have been buying up mobile home communities at a rapid pace over the past few years, including here in Massachusetts. WBUR reporter Simon Rios dives into his reporting on two local mobile home communities that were faced with corporate buyouts, and the two very different outcomes they saw.

This week’s storms in the South that killed at least three people and injured nearly 25 more highlight the dangers of being inside a mobile home or manufactured home during severe weather. Most of the homes destroyed in the storm were manufactured. And at least one of the deaths occurred in a manufactured home.

In fact, of the 104 tornado fatalities in 2021, 23 were in manufactured homes, according to NOAA’s Storm Prediction Center. In 2020, 39 of the 76 tornado deaths that year were in manufactured homes. Through Nov. 30 of this year, more than half of tornado deaths — 13 out of 22 — happened in manufactured homes. That's a lot,...

Residents at the Meadowlark mobile home park in Billings continue to have dirty water, a boil order is in effect, they've had frozen and broken pipes, and the water has been shut down.

And now in the Montana Legislature, lawmakers have proposed bills they hope could help in the long run.

Last month's historic cold snap in Montana brought more problems to this Billings mobile home park.

About 20 pipes broke at the end of the year.

"Biggest thing is just the water shut offs, and, you know, not having water and it being turned off all night. Has caused a lot of stress out here for a lot of people," said Gary Deveraux, a Meadowlark resident.

Residents of Oasis Mobile Home Park in Thermal will have access to safe drinking water through 2023 with a new $883,930 state grant. But the water won't come from the taps: The funds will be used to provide bottled water to households.

The State Water Resources Control Board began paying for bottled water at Oasis in October. Before that, the state, Riverside County and local community partners had been covering the cost since July.

The bottled water is not a long-term solution, officials acknowledge, but a stopgap while plans are drawn up for spending more than $50 million in state funding to both relocate Oasis residents and expand...

CHRISTIANSBURG, Va. (WFXR) — More than a dozen tenants at Massie’s Mobile Home Park and Christiansburg-based Southwest Virginia Legal are headed to Montgomery County General District Court on Friday, Jan. 6, for a scheduled hearing against their trailer park’s current owners.

“I’m looking for respect, and for people to be treated like human beings,” said Jacqueline Snyder, a tenant in the lawsuit.

Southwest Virginia legal aid attorney Kristi Murray says this is all happening after filing 13 unlawful exclusion suits. They say their water was cut off back in November after park owners didn’t pay the bill.

“First not being able to take your...

The North Platte city council wrangled for about an hour Tuesday about a zoning permit for a proposed small RV park on South Willow.

Merlin and Kelle Dikeman would like to create eight camping spots at 3501 S. Willow and erect a 40’ x 80’ building that contains a night watchman living quarters. The site is a couple blocks south of Goforth Trailer and Trucking at the corner of Walker and Willow.

The Dikemans said in their application that the building could be used to renovate and store old vehicles. Four of the campers in the outside stalls would be privately owned. The other four spaces would be available to lease.

The Dikemans said the...

COOPER TOWNSHIP MONTOUR COUNTY (WBRE/WYOU) — Residents of a Montour County mobile home park say they have had it with the ongoing water problems and reached out to the I-Team for help after they claim their concerns were not being addressed by property management.

Eyewitness News spoke with residents who are frustrated, disgusted, and some are downright angry. They say they just want to have clear, clean water once and for all.

“It’s been a frustrating mess and it always goes on. We’re at our wit’s end,” said Robert Hayden, a Pepper Hills Mobile Home Park resident.

Robert Hayden lives at the Pepper Hills Mobile Home Park near Danville. He...

Charlotte Bishop was standing at her kitchen window in January 2019 when she saw water streaming into her yard. A block of ice had clogged the brook that snakes around the mobile home park where she and her husband Rollin live in Brattleboro, Vermont. Ice jams are not uncommon in Vermont, but the heavier rains and earlier winter thaws—both related to climate change—will likely cause more flooding in communities near rivers and streams. Bishop grabbed her keys and rushed outside to move their cars to higher ground. Within minutes, she was wading through knee-high water. 

Bishop lives in Tri-Park Cooperative, Vermont’s largest and...

John Piazza remembers when he first moved to Lee’s Trailer Park in Revere in 2000, after his rent skyrocketed in Boston.

Piazza fell in love with a 720-square-foot mobile home, finding it more spacious and affordable than his small apartment in the North End.

He said the park owners charge him just $575 a month for the lot under his home — a fraction of what he would pay in rent for an apartment in Greater Boston. He also paid $20,000 for the mobile home itself, far less than the cost of a traditional single-family home or condo.

The 84-year-old planned to spend the rest of his days at Lee's Trailer Park. But last year, the park was sold...

LORDSBURG — The City Council shot down a zoning variance from Ed Kerr, who was asking the city to allow a 1977 mobile home to be placed in Pyramid Heights after residents who were at the Dec. 28 meeting voiced their opposition to the variance.

“The ordinance itself should prohibit this trailer from coming in,” resident Eddie Parra said. He added that there are already two abandoned trailers that need to be addressed by the city, and questioned a park area that is supposed to be maintained by the City.

“Don’t put us in the position where we have to challenge the fact that we pay taxes. For what? What are we getting in return?” Parra...

WEST SACRAMENTO — During severe storms, utility companies prioritize power for schools hospitals and customers' medical needs, but one local mobile home park's power was out for too long and the equipment necessary to keep some residents alive failed.

Valhalla Mobile Home Park has hundreds of residents, some of whom can't live for more than a few hours without power.

"I had heat in one room of the house so I survived," said Tom Madsen, a resident of the mobile home park.

The community of senior citizens lost power for days.

"There's a lot of people on oxygen CPAP machines and that's what we're worried about. What are they going to do...

ORMOND BEACH, Florida — The problems at Peggy Childress’ mobile home started in May when a tree from the vacant lot next door crashed through their carport, the first damage she or her husband, Mike, could recall in 15 years of living there.

Having the tree removed cost $600, all the money they had in savings. “It wiped us out,” said Childress, 61.

Then Hurricane Ian tore off their roof.

“It was like it was raining inside,” Childress said. Rooms filled with water, then mold.

Childress said she’s gotten estimates of more than $22,000 for repairs, “more than this place is worth.”

As is the case with many owners of manufactured and mobile...