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MAINEWIRE: Steep Rent Hike at Arundel Mobile Home Park Leaves Seniors and Low-Income Residents Scrambling

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Residents of Shady Oaks Mobile Home Park in Arundel are bracing for a sharp rent increase set to take effect December 1, raising fears that dozens of seniors and low-income homeowners could be forced out after the town declined to intervene.

Roughly 70 households own their mobile homes but rent the lots beneath them, currently paying between $530 and $680 a month. Tenants say they were notified that rents will rise by as much as $130 per month – a jump many say they simply cannot afford.

Longtime resident Jennifer Moreau, who relies on a fixed income, warned that “a whole other group of our population is about to be homeless.”

Residents...

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The situation at Shady Oaks mirrors a broader trend across Maine, where mobile home parks purchased by out-of-state investment firms have issued steep rent increases.

You know when you see any article coming out of Maine that the theme will always be that private equity groups are inherently evil and all parks should be owned by non-profits and tenants – the usual socialist take on America. The only thing I ever wonder is how Maine got so screwed up politically. Apparently consuming too much lobster and maple syrup turns you into a raging idiot.

KCTV5: Housing bill could save families on manufactured homes

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KANSAS CITY, Mo. (KCTV) - Missouri Congressman Emanuel Cleaver says he wants to eliminate a 51-year-old federal law that drives up housing costs.

Representative Cleaver (D-MO) said the Housing Supply Expansion Act of 2025 would remove a requirement that forces manufactured homes to include a permanent chassis - even after installation.

Cleaver says removing the chassis requirement would:

  • Lower construction costs
  • Increase design flexibility
  • Open more locations for affordable housing
  • Help young and low-income families buy homes
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Representative Cleaver (D-MO) said the “Housing Supply Expansion Act of 2025” would remove a requirement that forces manufactured homes to include a permanent chassis - even after installation.

This is an interesting development as the industry tried to get this done all the way back in the 1970s and was soundly defeated by HUD. Being able to have mobile homes that are not sticking awkwardly up in the air on cinder-black stilts would take a lot of the negative stigma off the mobile home product, but the single-family home lobby will fight this tooth and nail as they did in the 1970’s. Let’s see what happens.

The Berkshire Eagle: Berkshire Village repairs are on track. But residents of the mobile home park say they're not enough

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CHESHIRE — Improvements at the Berkshire Village manufactured home park are mostly done, according to its owners, but residents say the fixes are the bare minimum and more must be done. 

Last week, Crown Communities' Justin Damore, who is the lead engineer on the repair project, explained the renovations to the Cheshire Select Board, which acts as the park's rent control board. The fixes, which are mostly concentrated around the park's septic system and were flagged by the state Department of Environmental Protection, must be complete before Crown can raise rents on the park's tenants, many of whom were in attendance. 

Damore, who...

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This reminds me of the Trump administration being criticized for not lowering egg prices within the first week of the new administration. When you take over a mobile home park that has been neglected for over a decade, you’re not going to get it fully turned around overnight. The new owners have spent over $2 million in upgrades so far, so I think they should be getting accolades and not criticism. If they gave every resident a million dollars, cured cancer and ended the War in Ukraine, there would always be park residents who complain it's “not enough”, right?

LoudounNow: Loudoun Housing Board Says Tiny Homes Could Help Address Affordability

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Loudoun’s Affordable Dwelling Unit Advisory Board says the challenge of finding affordable living spaces could potentially be addressed in part by tiny homes, after the Board of Supervisors this year commissioned a study of the issue. 

As housing prices increase, supervisors are hoping there might be a way to use tiny homes to address the concern. According to the county staff, in 2025 the average price for one-bedroom unit in the county is $348,650, while a two-bedroom unit is $464,335. 

The county government already offers various attainable housing programs including the Affordable Dwelling Unit Purchase Program, but that has a...

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Lennar has developed tiny home community with prices averaged at $140,000 for 661 square feet. 

No, tiny homes are not the solution at that price. The solution would be allowing regular mobile homes, 3-bedroom in size, at a price point of $80,000 or so. Tiny homes are simply too small for 99% of Americans, and to pretend that a family can be satisfied using the washer and dryer as dining chairs and a bathroom the size of a gun safe is ample is simply ridiculous. Has the Loudoun Housing Board ever even been in a tiny home? But at least the respect for the economic advantage of alternative housing is refreshing.

San Jose Spotlight: San Jose wants to raise rents in mobile home parks

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San Jose mobile home residents say the city blindsided them by proposing changes that will increase rents.

The Housing Department is considering an update to its mobile home rent policy that would include a one-time rent increase up to 10% whenever a mobile home is sold, among other changes. Under the existing policy, property owners are allowed a 3% to 7% rent increase on each parcel every year. Anything more than that will require city approval, and they can’t increase rent to market rate prices except when the property is abandoned, the resident is evicted or when a sale falls through.

Residents said the city conducted no outreach to...

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“Our mobile home park owners throughout the city have a lot of maintenance that’s needed, as well as the continuing rises in utility costs, infrastructure costs and construction costs,” Soliván said at the meeting. “This 10% (increase) allows for… additional revenue to invest in continuing capital costs, while also mitigating some of the continuing rent increases across the site.”

Socialists in California are going to go nuts now that the city of San Jose is turning on their rent-control dream and realizing that it’s not working out as planned. Obviously, if you don’t let rents go up you’re not going to have landlords putting capital back into their properties. Is idiocy at risk of defeat at the hands of common sense in California? We’ll see what happens.

LVB: New manufactured home community offers more affordable housing options

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Housing affordability has become a major issue in the Lehigh Valley, but a new land-leased housing development in Lehigh Township could offer a solution for some homeowners.

The Sam Del Rosario Group at SERHANT is marketing the new development being built by Valley Community Management.

Northwoods Homes will ultimately be a 200-home residential community on more than 60 acres in Lehigh Township, Northampton County.

Jared Surnamer, president of Valley Community Management, said as a second-generation manager of land-leased properties, he believes Northwoods will bring affordable living for many families.

Most of the homes, which are built...

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Most of the homes, which are built on leased land that is not part of the purchase, are selling from the mid to upper $200,000s.

Come on, folks, $200,000 is NOT affordable. Can somebody please define what “affordable” means anymore? Is $100 an affordable lunch? This disconnect from the American public is the source of much of the problem when it comes to housing.

SPECTRUM NEWS: With neighbors ‘barely skimping by’ Jay mobile home park residents ask for pause on lot rent hikes

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AY — When JoAn Gray moved to a mobile home park on Lambert Street 12 years ago, she figured it would be the last time she would have to move.

Now 82, Gray is worried that a recent $50 a month lot rent increase could be just the beginning of higher costs. Her park recently sold, and she’s worried out of state owners won’t keep up with needed improvements.

“I know there are people in that park that are barely skimping by right now,” Gray said. “This to me is really scary.”

Gray is one of several mobile home park residents who hope their local select board will implement a moratorium to slow down lot rent increases. Waterville and Sanford...

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Another way to help combat rising lot rents is for residents to form a cooperative and purchase the park. That’s been successful in other parts of Maine, including Thomaston, Augusta, Bangor and Veazie.

No, that’s a complete lie. The truth is that absolutely zero percent of the time does the non-profit buying the park lead to lower lot rents. Not one example of that has ever happened. Instead, the residents pay MORE from non-profit ownership. The debt service of the giant loan requires massive rent hikes and the inability of the residents to collect rent from their friends, and manage the park effectively, results in much higher rents than a professional owner would ever require. And that does not even count the eventual collapse of the non-profit’s loan, which has already occurred in Colorado and other markets. This is one of the narratives the socialists love to beat to death, but it’s a complete lie.

It's interesting to note that socialist journalists had no less than nine nearly identical articles on this same story this week, in an apparent attempt at brainwashing the American public that capitalist landlords are evil. Were you convinced?

Moneywise: 'Whoops, somebody goofed': California’s housing fix backfires on Bay Area mobile home park residents. How states are tackling affordability

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A California law meant to boost affordable housing has set off panic in Bay Area mobile home parks — some of the last truly affordable housing in a region where single-family homes sell for $2 million (1) and the median rent is $3,179 a month (2).

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Under Senate Bill 79, she noted, the park could theoretically be redeveloped into a nine-story building — even though hundreds of families already live there in homes they own outright.

Ronald Reagan’s best all-time quote was “the nine most dangerous words in the English language are “I’m from the government and I’m here to help”. All of these park residents are screwed and only have their city fathers to thank for it.

Wisconsin Watch: Wisconsin’s forgotten homes: Takeaways from investigating manufactured housing

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Last winter, I got an intriguing story tip: Many Wisconsin manufactured home communities were operating with expired licenses. 

I didn’t initially know much about these communities, often called mobile home parks, where residents own their homes but rent the land they sit on. I quickly learned they provide a critical source of affordable housing in Wisconsin and beyond — the country’s largest portion of unsubsidized low-income housing. 

Housing experts and advocates told me private equity’s growing interest in the model threatens to change that. My reporting found that Wisconsin’s government is failing to enforce basic protections for...

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I didn’t initially know much about these communities, often called mobile home parks, where residents own their homes but rent the land they sit on. I quickly learned they provide a critical source of affordable housing in Wisconsin and beyond — the country’s largest portion of unsubsidized low-income housing. Housing experts and advocates told me private equity’s growing interest in the model threatens to change that.

There were multiple articles on this same topic – the same B.S. over and over and over. I fully understand why socialists would regard private equity groups as pure capitalism and, therefore, the antichrist, but the argument is complete nonsense and anyone who believes it is dumb as dirt. Private equity groups have done more to save failing mobile home parks than any other group, having poured hundreds of millions of dollars into fixing broken infrastructure and management. They should receive accolades not abuse. But there’s no way a socialist could give a medal to a private equity group, no matter what the facts are. “Trump derangement syndrome” is only exceeded by “private equity derangement syndrome”. Pathetic.

Loudoun Now: Mobile Home Park Residents Seek Affordable Housing Options

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Dozens of residents gathered at the Mobile Hope complex Saturday night to join solidarity vigil for the 85 families who are being displaced by the closure of the of Leesburg Mobile Home Park.

In July, park residents began receiving letters requiring them to vacate the property by the end of the year. The property owner, David Gregory, offered cash incentives of up to $6,000 to encourage early movers and $10,000 in relocation assistance. The residents were in a similar position in 2022, when the previous owner had plans to sell the 7.2-acre parcel to developers. Gregory stepped in to make the purchase, intending to provide the residents...

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And another park bites the dust.

New Times: SLO County supervisors reject rent increase for Harmony-managed mobile home parks

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The San Luis Obispo County Board of Supervisors unanimously shot down controversial mobile home park management company Harmony Communities’ attempt to increase rent at two local mobile home parks through a hardship request.

“When revenue fails to keep pace with inflation while expenses grow dramatically faster, the long-term viability of the community is at serious risk,” Harmony spokesperson Nick Ubaldi said. “The proposed rent adjustment is not about generating excess profit; it is the minimum necessary to allow the park to keep up with inflation and remain sustainable.”

To close the gap, rent increases were on the horizon for tenants...

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“When revenue fails to keep pace with inflation while expenses grow dramatically faster, the long-term viability of the community is at serious risk,” Harmony spokesperson Nick Ubaldi said. “The proposed rent adjustment is not about generating excess profit; it is the minimum necessary to allow the park to keep up with inflation and remain sustainable.”

The only sensible quote from this article. If lot rents can’t go up, then Harmony has no other option but to bring in the wrecking ball and put multi-story apartments on this land. Just watch what happens next.

Sanford Herald: Sanford wants to demolish mobile home park

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Sanford has plans to demolish seven mobile homes on Carr Creek Drive on the city’s eastern edge.

During a city council workshop on Wednesday, Nov. 12, code enforcement officer Joey Cox said that “they’re all deteriorated beyond habitation.”

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And another park bites the dust.

JPMorgan Chase: Increasing housing affordability through resident-owned communities

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Every year, and with every new owner, Lorena Vargas would receive notice of a rent increase for the land her manufactured home sat on. She and her neighbors in the Aspen Basalt Mobile Home Park in Colorado never knew in advance how much the hike would be or why.

Home never felt stable.

“It’s a false sense of security, because even if your mobile home is paid off, you still have this continuous lot rent that could increase,” said 34-year-old Vargas, who has lived in the community for 13 years with her husband and their two children. “So it makes you hesitant to invest in improvements in your home…it’s hard to take pride in something that’s...

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It all sounds good on paper – the residents have a non-profit buy the park instead of the “evil” landlord. Mamdani would love it. But then the reality sets in. The lot rents go up just as fast or faster. The tenant-managers can’t bear to collect rent or enforce the rules, so the quality of life goes down the tubes. And then the loan comes due a few years later – or goes into default earlier – and the non-profit throws in the towel and/or sells the land and the park gets demolished. Not convinced? Read this article: https://www.canoncitydailyrecord.com/2025/04/10/fremont-county-receives-foreclosures-notices-of-four-mobile-home-parks-in-canon-city/

AZ Luminaria: Watch now: New documentary reveals hidden struggles in Tucson’s mobile home parks

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A new documentary collaboration between Arizona Luminaria and Arizona Public Media reveals the quiet crises unfolding inside Tucson’s mobile home parks and how neighbors are standing together to face them.

Watch the complete YouTube version to hear from local residents, advocates and experts. You’ll see what’s often hidden: families improvising to stay cool, neighbors organizing and elders fighting to keep the homes they’ve poured their lives into.

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How many people are really watching this incredibly boring multi-part series? I’m betting the total audience is lower than you can fit in a Tesla.

WTVG: Former Toledo mobile home park collecting trash and furniture

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Jon Torres, a Toledo resident and founder of Restore The Block, a neighborhood clean-up initiative, described what he saw inside the trailers.

“Deplorable, filthy and, uh, disgusting,” Torres said.

13 Action News spoke to a neighboring business that said they’re worried about a fire risk on the property because of the high weeds and dry conditions.

The City of Toledo and Lucas County Auditor website show the owner is Kingsmen Investments LLC.

An attorney for the company sent us this statement:

“KMI acquired the property in 2020 and it was operational until we closed it last year. At that time we removed 3 buildings and multiple trailers,...

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And another park bites the dust.

Prism Reports: Li’l Abner Mobile Home Park residents evicted after yearlong legal battle

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When sheriff’s deputies arrived at Li’l Abner Mobile Home Park in Sweetwater, Florida, on Oct. 21, Ligia Siles sat on the steps of the home she’d built over 35 years, feeling powerless as she watched deputies change the lock on her door. 

“I made a video showing that I wasn’t abandoning my home, that they were kicking me out of my home,” Siles said. “They [said], ‘You can’t come in anymore. If you come in, you’ll be arrested.’”

Within hours, she and her husband were living apart because they could not find a place to accommodate them both. She stayed with a friend and he with their daughter, while former neighbors slept in cars or...

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Shame on the judge for letting this drag out for so long. Pathetic.

And, as always, another park bites the dust.

Business Journal: Rush to buy North Carolina mobile home parks continues in Clayton

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Mobile home communities have consistently remained one of North Carolina's hottest real estate investments throughout 2025 — and that trend is holding steady through the waning months of the year.

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Mobile home communities have consistently remained one of North Carolina's hottest real estate investments throughout 2025 — and that trend is holding steady through the waning months of the year.

North Caroliina is a good state for park ownership, as is South Carolina, Alabama, and a number of southern states. As the U.S. population flees the cold weather and crazy politics of the north, everything south is going up in value – it’s simply the law of supply and demand.

WTVG: Riverside Mobile Home Park set to be demolished

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TOLEDO, Ohio (WTVG) - Starting next week, the city of Toledo will begin preparations to demolish the Riverside Mobile Home Park.

The mobile home park was deemed unfit for habitation and residents have until Monday to be out.

For the residents still living inside the Riverside Mobile Home Park, they say that while they have been offered a temporary solution, they are still living with a lot of uncertainty. They wish this situation from the start would have been handled differently by the city, so they would not have to say goodbye to their homes.

“If they are worried about housing in the city, you know, fix it up themselves. I own two...

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And another park bites the dust.

Business Insider: I left my six-figure law job and bought a mobile-home park. Despite the drawbacks, I'm happier and still live comfortably.

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From my 30s to my early 50s, I was a tax lawyer in Big Law, Big Four Accounting firms, and banks.

I've given talks at tax-policy panels, sat on a trading floor, made $400,000 a year, and had an expense account.

During baseball season, I took clients to the VIP section of Yankee Stadium and sat behind home plate. My parents grinned when people asked them, "What does your son do?"

Big Law paid well, and it solved the cocktail-party question, but I always felt something was missing.

The hours were brutal. I was always on, 24/7. I couldn't touch, feel, or smell the product of my work. I struggled with the politics and zero-sum outcomes.

In...

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Pretty fair and balanced – I’m impressed.

Maine Beacon: Private equity firms are snapping up mobile home parks − and driving out the residents who can least afford to lose them

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One of America’s most affordable paths to homeownership is slipping away.

At manufactured home parks – sometimes called trailer parks or mobile home parks – rents are rapidly rising due to large-scale buyouts by private equity firms.

Although private equity’s foray into the housing market is not new, the buyout of mobile home parks by investment firms is on the rise – with devastating consequences for residents. Over the past decade, rents in these parks have risen 45%, according to census data. Once a park is sold, the risk of eviction rises significantly in the following year.

I’m a poverty law attorney in Virginia, and many of my...

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As you bring old mobile home parks back to life, the byproduct of progress is higher lot rents and that has the ability to push out a tiny fraction of customers who could barely afford the rent when the property was an ugly mess. That’s as true in mobile home parks as it is in single-family homes and apartments. It’s a natural part of life. Yet the media wants to hold mobile home parks to some bizarre higher standard than all other forms of real estate combined. Look, if the media is really this concerned about the roughly .001% of residents that cannot afford to live in the real world of modern housing costs, then they should get all over the folks at Section 8 on why they can’t afford to fund more of their enormous waiting list. Mobile home park owners are simply real estate investors, not social engineers. They didn’t create the problem of the tiny group of marginal residents – or the huge increase in housing costs – and they certainly can’t solve it. It’s a government issue, yet the government has turned its back on the people earning $700 per month on disability who clearly cannot make it without financial assistance. Remember that mobile home parks, unlike apartments and single-family rental homes, are not subsidized by HUD and never have been.

Palm Beach Post: Is private equity good for mobile home owners? Not if you pay rent.

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A shift occurred in the 1950s. Those with higher incomes bought houses, and eventually, mobile home communities cropped up throughout the country as places for people to park their mobile homes for months, years or permanently. Nowadays, mobile homes are more often called “manufactured homes.” They are assembled in factories and rarely move once they’ve been purchased and settled. In fact, more than 90% never move from their original site.

Today, around 20.6 million Americans live in a mobile or manufactured home. About one-third of mobile homes are in mobile home communities, where the residents usually own the home itself, but they rent...

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Over the past decade, rents in these parks have risen 45%, according to census data.

OK, housing is the fourth largest cost for the average American household, behind healthcare, childcare and transportation. Let’s see how much those have gone up over the past decade:

  1. Healthcare has gone up 80.5%.
  2. Transportation has gone up 41.5%.
  3. Childcare has gone up 43%.

So it looks like mobile home park lot rents have gone up half as fast as healthcare and about in-line with all other household costs.

It would be nice if the author happened to point this out to the reader. But, of course, they can’t because it would not support their whole socialist agenda. Landlords and private equity groups are inherently evil, right? No matter what the facts are!

The Press Democrat: Windsor leaders extend pause on mobile home park closures, changes in face of federal lawsuit

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A day after being served papers in a federal lawsuit from mobile home park owners who say town regulations infringe on their property rights, Windsor town leaders sent a strong message to tenants and park owners alike: they’re not backing down.

In a unanimous vote, the Town Council extended an urgency ordinance that pauses any changes or closures to mobile home parks for 10 months and 15 days. The extra time will allow staff to update Windsor’s 30-year-old mobile home ordinance and “close any loopholes” that might exist, Town Planner Jennifer Sedna said.

The urgency ordinance stems from proposed changes at Evergreen Mobile Home Park,...

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A day after being served papers in a federal lawsuit from mobile home park owners who say town regulations infringe on their property rights, Windsor town leaders sent a strong message to tenants and park owners alike: they’re not backing down.

The leaders of Windsor are about to cave, just like the Democrats did on the government shutdown. The mobile home park owners will clearly win the lawsuit against Windsor and the city will give in out of self-preservation – they just need to buy time to come up with a good P.R. spin first.

The Ceres Courier: Residents told to leave Lazy Wheels Mobile Home Park or face eviction

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Lazy Wheels Mobile Home Park has been the bane of the city of Ceres for decades and now it’s soon to become history.

As of Nov. 1, residents were ordered to vacate the park, which abuts to the eastern flank of Highway 99 north of the Whitmore Avenue. Calabasas owner Anthony Nowaid said those who remain will be evicted.

City officials have made it clear to Nowaid that once the residents are gone, Lazy Wheels no longer exists as a mobile home park – and that it can’t ever be one again.

“The park is a mess, it needs to be cleaned up,” said Ceres City Manager Doug Dunford. “You can’t go in and put in a few boards and nails and things. It...

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Dunford is adamant that the city doesn’t want “another mobile home park nor will we support another mobile home park” in that location.

Wait, I thought California loves affordable housing? They do, just as long as it’s not anywhere near where they live.

And, as usual, another park bites the dust.

News Center Maine: Saco pauses mobile home rent hikes as residents voice concerns

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Back in August, Blue Haven residents were notified that in December their rent would go up for the second time this year, with no explanation from park owners as to why.

The increase is as high as $145 a month.

Residents like Sarah Giles-Gardner, who has a disability and is on a fixed income, said that hike is not sustainable.

“I just don't have enough money to be able to stay if it's just gonna be $145. It's too much. It's too much, I can't do it,” she said. “We need to fight back because this is not right.”

The rent increase was announced ahead of new laws meant to slow rent hikes going into effect, including one giving...

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Residents like Sarah Giles-Gardner, who has a disability and is on a fixed income, said that hike is not sustainable. “I just don't have enough money to be able to stay if it's just gonna be $145. It's too much. It's too much, I can't do it,” she said. “We need to fight back because this is not right.”

I bet I could find 100 people that would say that they can’t afford to eat anymore because McDonald’s tripled the cost of the McChicken sandwich – and that’s just in my small town of 4,500. Price controls are not how the free market works. That’s how socialism works. Thank heavens I don’t live or do business in Maine.

Idaho Press: Eagle mobile home residents unionize in opposition to fee hikes, other new ownership changes

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EAGLE — As new ownership looks to overhaul a mobile home park, the majority of residents have formed a union in the hopes of pushing back on fees and eviction notices they say are disrupting the past calm of the park.

The union’s formation came Oct. 25 with an announcement from the Treasure Valley Tenants Union that over 80% (now 33 of 38 occupied units) have signed onto the union to engage in collective bargaining for the Elevate Eagle Manufactured Home Community (MHC) — formerly the Riviera Estates Mobile Home Park.

The park was brought under the ownership of Demetre Booker Jr., the principle partner of real estate firm Elevate...

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Look, there’s no such thing as “unionizing” a mobile home park. It has no legal standing or power. This is not Starbucks. This concept is good for five minutes of fame but people will then move on to more important items like the failure of the new Kardashian cable show.