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Florida Today: How Brevard can tackle its affordable housing problem | Opinion

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Are there solutions to a Space Coast housing situation where many believe a shot at decent, affordable housing slips further away?

That was the main issue this week at Brevard County’s inaugural “Affordable House Summit: Foundations for the Future of Housing on Florida’s Space Coast.”

Community leaders opened a countywide public discussion on what to do about a housing condition ― and one not unique to the Space Coast ― that price low-income, and even moderate-income, individuals and families out of a stable and decent place to live.

More than 200 people attended the all-day summit in Cocoa Village, where a roster of speakers,...

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Amber Caroll, director of the Brevard Homeless Coalition: “There is hope. There is hope. And the hope is here in this room.”

Maybe these folks should read the military officer handbook titled “Hope Is Not a Method”. The army found that one of the worst leadership traits is spouting out “hope” as opposed to reality-based action plans.

You cannot build an affordable home in the U.S. today, because construction costs plus lot costs equals $300,000 and up. “Hoping” you can accomplish that is just a waste of time. The only way to provide a detached dwelling at under $300,000 is a mobile home park. Period.

Effingham Herald: Guyton to amend code regarding manufactured and modular homes

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The City of Guyton issued a press release May 18.

To quell the rumors and misinformation surrounding the potential changes to the City Zoning code regarding manufactured housing and modular homes, The following information is important:

1. The City is not making manufactured or modular homes illegal.

2. The City is not taking away existing manufactured or modular homes.

3. The City will not prevent homeowners from replacing an existing manufactured or modular home.

 4. The City will not prevent homeowners from repairing their property or require approval to do so.

The current proposed changes to the code will do the following:

1. Property...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Guyon, Georgia has a new idea. They will require a Special Use Permit for each and every new mobile home to enter any mobile home park in the city. But this should not be considered a way for them to keep mobile home tenants from moving in but instead because “It allows the community the opportunity to participate in the future of their neighborhoods”.

Yeah, right.

Let’s see how that holds up in court.

The Durango Herald: How Lightner Creek tested Colorado’s Mobile Home Park Act

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When about 85 residents lost water for two months in the Lightner Creek Mobile Home Park earlier this year west of Durango, there was little anyone could do.

Two days after the Feb. 13 outage, the park’s owner, Darlene Mann, received a cease-and-desist order from Christina Postolowski, manager of the Mobile Home Park Oversight Program. The order compelled Mann to comply with the various sections of the Mobile Home Park Act by repairing the water system, providing water to residents until service was restored, repairing a blocked sewer line and fully cleaning up a spill of raw sewage on park property.

When Mann did not comply with the...

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Our thoughts on this story:

The average park owner does not have access to the $30 trillion credit line of the U.S. government. Asking an elderly park owner to chip in $5,000 per day, for water alone, for 60 days totals $300,000. And that does not even cover the cost to replace the water lines. So what’s the solution? Do you think there’s a higher use for this land in Durango, Colorado? Are you serious? In this case, a park buyer took the property over and saved it from the wrecking ball. But in 9 out of 10 cases, this park would be torn down and made into a more profitable use. What should have happened differently? The state should have supplied the water and fixed the water lines and prayed that the stress of the situation alone would not have coerced the seller into calling a land broker. The article confirms that if the park was resident-owned the state would have provided grants or low-cost loans immediately to do just that. Since tenants own nearly zero parks in Colorado, the state might want to think about changing that program requirement.

Ideastream Public Media: Euclid Beach Mobile Home Park supporters stage another protest to save homes

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Holding protest signs including “Fund our community, not our displacement,” about 10 supporters of the Euclid Beach Mobile Home Park demonstrated outside of a Western Reserve Land Conservancy fundraiser at the conservancy’s Moreland Hills headquarters Friday morning.

The conservancy, which owns the land where the mobile home park sits in Cleveland’s Collinwood neighborhood, announced in February that more than 100 mobile home residents would have to move to make way for a new public park. Since then, United Residents of Euclid Beach (UREB) — a resident’s union with about 40 members — and the Northeast Ohio Coalition for the Homeless...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Do you seriously think that Cleveland needed this piece of land so bad to make way for a city park that they just had to evict those 100 park residents? Obviously, the truth is probably that Cleveland wanted to get this park torn down because it’s unsightly and costing the city a fortune in school tuition, hospital stays, and public programs. That’s like when the hotel says that it’s not going to wash your towels or sheets to save the environment from toxic chemicals.

The New York Times: Inside Montauk’s Luxurious ‘Trailer Park’

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On a recent May evening, Janet O’Brien served up Old-Fashioneds and tequilas on ice to friends at her Montauk home. The conversational menu featured what one might expect for a tony Hamptons cocktail hour: past and upcoming trips to Morocco, Manhattanites bragging about rarely stepping foot in Brooklyn and gossip about how much neighbors spent on renovations.

The setting is perhaps the interesting part: Ms. O’Brien’s home is in what they all call “a trailer park.”

Montauk Shores, the roughly 200-unit manufactured home community that overlooks Ditch Plains Beach, isn’t what immediately comes to mind when one thinks of a trailer park. The...

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Our thoughts on this story:

There is some part of society that celebrates taking conspicuous consumption to a new level. Paying $3.5 million for a 800 square foot mobile home is not prestigious or cool -- it’s just plain stupid. Wasting money does not make you a big shot, spending it wisely is what makes you superior. Think of everything that could have been done with that $3.5 million to benefit others. You could buy 10 people a debt-free home, for example, or put 20 people through college.

KSAT: Mobile home co-op plan poised to get city bond funding

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San Antonio – The City of San Antonio plans to use part of its first housing bond to help create the city’s first mobile home park cooperative.

As part of the second round of proposals to use bond and federal dollars, city staff on Wednesday recommended helping fund a plan to purchase a South Side mobile home park and convert it into a co-op. That means the tenants of the 56-site Riverside Terrace on Mission Road would then own the park themselves and have the authority to set rents and make any improvements.

City staff recommended approving a little less than $2.9 million of the $150 million housing bond as well as $250,000 in fee...

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Our thoughts on this story:

The tenants are buying this park for around $100,000 per lot. Clearly the seller has no problem with that. But I don’t think these residents realize what they’re getting into. To service that much debt, the rents are going to go up – way up. “Maybe not today or tomorrow but soon and for the rest of their lives” as Humphrey Bogart would say. To think that this transaction is going to keep rents low is a fallacy. It’s called math.

Sea Coast Online: Portsmouth board allows new mobile home without city director's process

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PORTSMOUTH — The city Zoning Board of Adjustment voted to allow the owner of a 1960s-era mobile home in the Oriental Gardens park to replace it with a new home without getting a variance.

The board’s vote came late Tuesday night, after city Planning Director Peter Britz recently declined to grant a building permit for the new mobile home.

Britz had also ruled the owner of the mobile home at 210 Oriental Gardens would need to get a variance from the board first, before replacing the existing home.

John Kuzinevich, the attorney representing Salem Manufactured Homes LLC, the company seeking to sell the new home to the park resident, said the...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Classic tale of a city bureaucrat not understanding zoning law and, when a lawyer goes above their head, is immediately overruled and the mobile home is approved.

KOLO: Can’t afford to stay or leave: Local mobile home owners’ dilemma

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SPARKS, Nev. (KOLO) -In many ways, Jeanneil Marzan is a typical resident of her seniors-only mobile home park in Sparks.

She’s owned her manufactured home for 10 years, and for all those years she’s shouldered the responsibilities of any homeowner. Her home and others nearby are well kept.

Although she owns and maintains the structure, someone else owns the ground it sits on and her landlord has just changed. In December, the park was bought by an investment group, the Carlisle Corporation.

They’ve raised the rent for new residents. She pays $790 a month. Someone moving in across the street would pay just over a thousand, but there are no...

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Our thoughts on this story:

This article is so stupid that its own conclusion negates it.

So, they are tied to a home they own and can’t move, facing added expense if they stay, leaving with a fraction of its worth if they choose to move on. “So, if I want to sell my house for probably half what I should get for it, then where do I go?” asks Marzan. “What else is affordable here that we could get into?”

The article starts off saying that higher lot rents make mobile home prices go down, as the potential home buyer has less cash flow to work with. Then it ends with the fact that they bought the mobile home, not for appreciation potential, but because it’s the cheapest thing in town. You can’t have it both ways. I know of no asset that is both cheap and appreciates wildly. If I go buy a car at a used car lot and say “what’s the cheapest thing you’ve got” I’ll end up with a 1985 Ford Taurus. Not a 1985 Ferrari. And that Taurus will have zero chance of ever being a collectible classic. If I buy the car that will appreciate – the Ferrari – it will cost as much as the ten cheapest cars combined.

So don’t go around telling me that anyone lives in mobile homes because they view that as an appreciating asset. They live in mobile homes because they represent the only shot at insanely cheap living. If you want a house that appreciates in value, the average single-family home costs $400,000 – that’s 100 times what many mobile homes sell for.

KAALTV: Future of Bob’s Trailer Park to be discussed during public hearing

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(ABC 6 News) – There will be a public hearing about the closing of Bob’s Trailer Park on Monday.

The Rochester city council will review the park owner’s closure statement and assess the impact the park’s closing could have. Bob’s was bought by “TSJ Parks LLC” in 2021, with plans to turn the trailer park into low-income housing for seniors.

ABC 6 News has reported on several issues this trailer park faced before, including the public health and safety concerns related to a compromised water system.

This past October residents were officially given their notice to leave, but some residents say they never received a notice and were told they...

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Our thoughts on this story:

So let me get this straight: the city and media has hounded this park for years about how much they hate it and now they are crying because it’s officially closing. Kind of reminds me of the old adage “the dog that bites the hand that feeds it”. Maybe city bureaucrats missed out on economics class, but the premise of free enterprise is just that: “free”. If you relentlessly harass a business, it shuts down and converts into a new business that it’s harder to be harassed about. You see this going on throughout American cities today, such as WalMart closing all stores in Portland https://www.the-sun.com/money/7549539/walmart-store-closing-theft-shoplifting/. So here’s a new bulletin for Rochester government and media concerning Bob’s Trailer Park: “you blew it”. Just like Portland.

Realtor: The Week’s Most Popular Listing Is a Must-See California Mobile Home—Seriously

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Atiny mobile home in Palm Springs, CA, rumored to have once been actor Desi Arnaz‘s makeup trailer is this week’s most popular listing on Realtor.com®.

Named “Lucille” after Arnaz’s real-life wife and “I Love Lucy” co-star, Lucille Ball, the 336-square-foot abode is part of a mobile park community known as Horizon Mobile Village. Located directly under the famous , the affordable and adorable dwelling is already pending sale.

Other real estate offerings that made the popularity list include a massive Lone Star estate with a 50-car garage, a California megamansion that Eddie Murphy once owned, and a hobbit-style home in...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Seriously? $150,000 for that?

AZMirror: The eviction o mobile home residents happened by design. Zoning reform can prevent it.

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The same week that the Phoenix City Council was debating providing a mobile home zoning overlay at three mobile home parks that are facing imminent eviction and displacement, another mobile home park at the I-17 and Indian School Road showed up for sale on Zillow. 

The listing stated that the tenants were facing annual rent increases and that future rezoning and redevelopment was imminent. This would allow for the demolition of the existing 34 mobile homes and subsequent eviction of all the residents to build about 192 units of market-rate housing. 

Even if the community organized to reject the rezoning application, most mobile home parks...

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Our thoughts on this story:

“Mobile home parks being purchased by developers, subsequent evictions and trauma for the residents will not stop until the root of the issue is addressed. Exclusionary zoning practices must end in order to provide our families and communities the security and dignity that is taken with their eviction, displacement, and destruction of their homes. Our state lawmakers can choose to stop this with three zoning reform bills that are currently at the state legislature, House Bill 2536, Senate Bill 1161 and Senate Bill 1163. Each seeks to unwind exclusionary zoning by: allowing for the construction of casitas, manufactured housing, and affordable housing along the light rail by-right.”

If any of these three bills pass in Arizona, the state is screwed. Property values will be destroyed. More woke initiatives that no sane person would ever vote for, but bureacrats might be coerced into supporting on TV if protestors scream at them enough or harass them in front of their houses.</p>

Valley News: Mobile home parks tackle septic, drinking water crises with federal dollars

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When the North Country Village Cooperative asked the state last year for help with failing drinking water and wastewater systems, the manufactured home community was placed at No. 5 on a priority list.

Fifty-seven homes occupy the former 1960s three-season campground, just a few miles from the beautiful expanse of Lake Winnipesaukee in the small town of Tuftonboro. The leach field systems were defective and breaking down. Some needed to be pumped every six months or less. Septic tanks were undersized.

Drinking water was another issue altogether. The water system was just barely meeting daily demand, according to project documents, and one...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Yet another article about New Hampshire replacing mobile home park infrastructure but only if the tenants own the park. The writer somehow thinks this topic will brainwash all park residents to buy their parks. Unfortunately, this writer does not read my weekly submissions, or they’d realize that it’s a ridiculous narrative. They might as well write an article stating that if you get a perfect SAT score you will get free tuition in college (which is true). In last week’s articles I highlighted a group of park residents that were trying to buy their property at a price of $16.5 million and had only been able to raise $4,400 towards that goal when the timeclock ran out. That’s the truth in 99% of all cases.

KTNV: Residents forced to move as North Las Vegas senior mobile home park closes

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NORTH LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — Many residents at the Pair-A-Dice Senior Mobile Home Park say they were told to leave by June 2nd because the park is being torn down.

"Where are you going to put all the senior citizens who are on a fixed income," said Pair-A-Dice Senior Mobile Home Park resident, David Kille.

Another resident, Sayed Mohammad Sayed has lived in the park for nearly two decades. Over the years, he said he has invested about $20,000 into his home, but says Agora Realty, the company that recently purchased the land is only offering him $3,750 to relocate by June 2nd.

"Now to move from here and not give me the correct money is...

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Our thoughts on this story:

“In a statement sent to Channel 13, Agora Realty said they are working proactively to help residents relocate because of the park's closure, but residents believe even with their help it will be nearly impossible to find an affordable place to live.”

Maybe those residents should spread the word to all the other mobile home park residents nationwide as to the importance of all park owners making sufficient profit as to not seek redevelopment.

Daily Mail: EXCLUSIVE: 'I live the same lifestyle as my multi-millionaire neighbor!' Inside Palm Beach mobile home community Briny Breezes - complete with a beach club and pool - where residents REFUSED $500m offer from developers

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And when a so-far unidentified developer wanted to change all that and offered more than half a billion dollars to buy them out, the residents were near unanimous with their answer – you've got to be kidding me!

Even now, they don't regret their decision to turn down the bid, as DailyMail.com got an inside look at the community and spoke to residents who said no to the offer of $502,496,000.

'This is paradise,' resident Chuck Swift told DailyMail.com. 'I mean, you're sitting on my boat right now and I live the same lifestyle as a mega multimillionaire that's six blocks south. Obviously it's a trailer, but I can go out to the inlet, out to...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Look at the photos in this article and tell me how these people are not complete idiots for turning down $502 million for this land – that’s over a million dollars to each resident, free and clear. If this is the best you could do for housing on $1 million then I’m speechless.

The Islander Classifieds: Offer to buy Pines Park includes 5-year break for homeowners

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Homeowners in the Pines Trailer Park, 103 Church Ave., Bradenton Beach, received notice May 8 of an offer from an unknown entity seeking to purchase the park land.

The notice was prepared by attorney David A. Luczak, representing the Jackson Partnership, which owns the land on the bayside in the city’s historic district.

The property is one of two mobile home parks on Anna Maria Island — both are in Bradenton Beach.

The notice outlined an offer that includes a purchase price of $16,250,000 for park-owned land, as well as any park-owned mobile homes, recreational vehicles, equipment, materials, vehicles and buildings.

The notice also...

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Our thoughts on this story:

As required under the Florida Mobile Home Act, they first offered the park to the homeowners association for purchase. The law requires a park owner to give 45 days notice of an intent to sell to unit
owners and gives those homeowners the first right of refusal. Homeowners in February voted to form a cooperative to rally for the purchase of the land but negotiations between the property owner and the HOA failed April 20 due to a lack of funding, according to Bill Gorman, a real estate professional hired by Pines homeowners to help facilitate the purchase of the park from the ownership.

Could somebody please explain to the world that mobile home park residents are not going to come up with not only $16 million but with $1 million non-refundable on day one (which was required to match the offer). 

NBC Palm Springs: Mobile Home Park Water Pipeline Work to Prompt Partial Overnight Road Closure

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INDIO (CNS) – Overnight water pipeline work aimed at enhancing water quality and reliability in a mobile home park will prompt the closure of a portion of Indio Boulevard through early Tuesday.

From 10 p.m. Monday until 4 a.m. Tuesday, the eastbound lanes of Indio Boulevard between Jefferson and Madison Streets will be closed, according to the city of Indio. The work will convert the Elm Mobile Home Park’s private water system to the City of Indio/Indio Water Authority (IWA) system.

“The City/IWA entered into an agreement with the State Water Resources Control Board to provide a safe and reliable water supply to the 48 households in Elm’s...

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Our thoughts on this story:

This article had some interesting input, but the writer missed it. It’s the interesting way that this park came to get city water after decades of well water:

“The City/IWA entered into an agreement with the State Water Resources Control Board to provide a safe and reliable water supply to the 48 households in Elm’s Mobile Home Park,” city officials said in a statement. The project is being funded by a grant from the Safe and Affordable Funding for Equity and Resilience (SAFER) Drinking Water Program.”

If more cities and states would do proactive improvements to old mobile home parks, then fewer of them would close each year.

The Laurinburg Exchange: Laurinburg mobile home park in peril for residents

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LAURINBURG — 63-year-old Tina Perry has lived at the Town and Country Estate mobile home park, situated between the new and old Hillside Cemeteries in Laurinburg, for 36 years.

The land was recently acquired by Park Haven Management and, along with new ownership, an order to vacate the park. Perry, who owns her home but rents the plot of land it sits on, remains undaunted and is currently crusading against the new owners to keep her home where it has been for over half her life.

Town and country mobile home park is comprised of homeowners and renters. Approximately eight to ten individuals own their homes and rent the land, whereas six to...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Not much must be happening in Laurinburg, North Carolina when a newspaper prints a major story which is nothing more than a liberal judge dismissing an eviction because the park was not represented by an attorney (which this judge finds somehow offensive). The article admits that all the park owner has to do is simply re-file and have an attorney show up and they will win the eviction. But the resident gets a whopping 30 more days. Big deal.

KHQA: Residents in Monroe Community Trailer Court unhappy with condition of property

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MONROE CITY, Mo. (KHQA) — Residents of one Monroe City Trailer Court are unhappy about the cost of living and unhealthy living conditions.

"They have all these high expectations, but them not wanting to fix anything, how are you going to have high expectations when you are a slumlord," said one tenant who requested their identity remain unknown.

Residents in the Monroe Community Trailer Court have had concerns about the condition of the area for sometime now.

They say they have seen more crime and unhealthy living conditions when new owners took over.

Ben White lived in the former Kendrick Mobile Home Park since 1972.

He says when the new...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Could this be any more predictable? New owners buy the park and raise rents and enforce rules. A few residents try to get back at the owners by claiming that somehow the park is going down the drain (when it’s really being brought back to life). Some young reporter who makes less than the cashier at Dollar General writes an article about it without probably doing any fact-checking at all or attempting to get the other side of the story.

New Hampshire Bulletin: Mobile home parks tackle septic, drinking water crises with federal dollars

Preview:

When the North Country Village Cooperative asked the state last year for help with failing drinking water and wastewater systems, the manufactured home community was placed at No. 5 on a priority list.

Fifty-seven homes occupy the former 1960s three-season campground, just a few miles from the beautiful expanse of Lake Winnipesaukee in the small town of Tuftonboro. The leach field systems were defective and breaking down. Some needed to be pumped every six months or less. Septic tanks were undersized. 

Drinking water was another issue altogether. The water system was just barely meeting daily demand, according to project documents, and...

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Our thoughts on this story:

It seems odd that the only mobile home parks that qualify for this program are those owned by the residents. What is the deal with the media and bureaucrats trying to force all mobile home parks to be owned by the residents when the fact is that a incredibly tiny number can ever meet those requirements? New Hampshire has one of the tiniest number of mobile home parks in the U.S. so it doesn’t matter much, but it’s sad that bureaucrats don’t see the benefit in helping ALL mobile home parks to get infrastructure repair where appropriate. It would be policies like that which would reduce the number of mobile home parks that get torn down and redeveloped each year.

The Argonaut: Palouse trailer parks form community cooperative

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Four mobile home parks in the region recently voted to form a cooperative in order to counteract some of the issues they experience. 

Residents of all four mobile home communities in the area are facing rent hikes of between 11% and 101%. (See accompanying chart) 

According to the National Cooperative Business Association, manufactured housing is susceptible to unique concerns. Since residents only own their homes, and not the land that their homes are on, they can be subject to poor infrastructure. This issue was exemplified by the Appaloosa Court situation when residents experienced problems with their water supply.

In March, Victoria...

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Our thoughts on this story:

This journalist is apparently offended because of the“feudalistic arrangement” between the tenant and the mobile home park owner. My question is “what form of real estate does not have a feudalistic arrangement”? In all property rights, the owner holds all the cards and the tenant has none. Is there some other arrangement the writer proposes? Maybe one in which the owner puts up all the money and risk and then the tenants choose the rent level? Even Karl Marx would tell you it’s a hard sell.

The Smithfield Times: Red Oaks mobile home park for sale for $15 million

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The Red Oaks mobile home park off Benns Church Boulevard may change hands for the first time in 35 years.  According to a state notice, the 178-lot community went on the market April 28 for a listed price of $15 million.  The Virginia Manufactured Home Lot Rental Act requires mobile community landlords to provide their tenants and the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development with written notice at least 90 days ahead of accepting any purchase offer.

Brent Bollin, a resident of the park since 1996, told The Smithfield Times he received his copy of the notice in the mail on May 1.  The notice lists Coastal Investors LLC of...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Yippee, another article that announces that the residents of this park are going to raise $15 million to buy the property:

According to a state notice, the 178-lot community went on the market April 28 for a listed price of $15 million.  The Virginia Manufactured Home Lot Rental Act requires mobile community landlords to provide their tenants and the Virginia Department of Housing and Community Development with written notice at least 90 days ahead of accepting any purchase offer.

The odds of this occurring is probably equivalent to the Houston Texans winning the Superbowl every year for the next decade.

Jacobin: Wall Street Is Holding a Gun to Mobile Home Residents’ Heads

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In the Indianapolis eviction court where my students and I work, Jessica and her family come to court in a panic. Jessica contracted COVID-19 and missed several weeks of work, which caused her to fall behind on the rent she owed to a mobile home park. Now she and her elderly mother and a brother living with disabilities, who all live together in the family home, are facing eviction.

The good news: Jessica and her family came to court with several folded and dog-eared money orders they had cobbled together, which together added up to the rent due. The bad news: the landlords say they won’t dismiss the eviction case unless Jessica pays for...

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Our thoughts on this story:

What an absurd article with quotes like “In mobile home parks around the country, millions of tenants and owners are being mercilessly exploited and regularly evicted, often by giant Wall Street firms like Blackstone.” Who wrote this nonsense, AOC? Blackstone and other private equity groups are injecting millions of dollars into these parks and bringing them back to life. That’s like criticizing the doctor that brings the patient back to life and then the relatives complain “I liked him better before”. Give me a break.

Nassau County Record: Trailers move for new growth

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A new 16,500-square-foot medical and retail development could break ground in Callahan before the year’s end. 

An application had not been filed with Callahan Town Hall as of Tuesday, according to town officials.  

The proposed Coastal Callahan Center is planned at 541299 U.S. 1, in the same location as the present Pinetree Trailer Park. E.H. Callahan, LLC is listed as the new property owner, according to the Nassau County Property Appraiser’s Office website. The property currently consists of 10 mobile home lots and two structures. Only a few mobile homes appear occupied. 

The 5.24-acre mixed-use development is part of Jacksonville-based...

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Our thoughts on this story:

This is what happens when the park does not charge continually higher lot rents.

New Hampshire Public Radio: How hard is it to build more housing in NH? A new tool puts a spotlight on zoning rules

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This story was originally produced by the Concord Monitor. NHPR is republishing it in partnership with the Granite State News Collaborative.

An affordable, manageable starter home in New Hampshire can come in many different shapes and sizes – a small single-family home, an accessory dwelling unit on an existing lot, a manufactured home, or even a tiny house, on a small tract of land.

However, due to the discrepancy of zoning codes and ordinances statewide, some of these housing options are practically off the table in certain communities.

A new tool from researchers at Saint Anselm College, the New Hampshire Zoning Atlas, provides an...

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Our thoughts on this story:

This comment in the article confuses me: “without affordable places to live, new employees and employers will look elsewhere”. 84% of New Hampshire housing is a single-family home on an acre or more. That is reflected in the home prices which, for example, are $360,000 in Concord. New Hampshire is one of America’s oldest states, and it’s been running just fine with highly restrictive housing. Why would they want to suddenly loosen those restrictions? Sounds like some type of woke narrative to me, or maybe fast food franchises have taken control of the legislature. I doubt that even 1% of the state population would welcome this concept.

Anchorage Daily News: A Chugiak trailer park under eviction notice lacks clean water and sits on contaminated land. Many residents are fighting to stay.

Preview:

Alonzo Lang made a life and raised his family at the Forest Park trailer court.

He built a smoker from a 55-gallon drum that can handle a whole hog. The garden beds now still buried under snow will be filled with vegetables and flowers in the summer. Last fall, he strung a moose carcass from a birch on his lot as he butchered it for freezer meat. He’s rehabbed his trailer down to its bones, invested time, money and effort into making it home.

“I love it out here,” Lang said, wearing camo pants and a T-shirt that reads “Free Hugs” as he stood in front of his home, constructed in 1968. “To look at it, it’s an old trailer, but if you go on...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Yet another example that the scariest words in the English language are “I’m from the government and I’m here to help”. Some bureaucrats are making these 100 families homeless because they have decided – on their behalf – that they’d be better off homeless than living in the mobile home park. And, of course, in the background is probably a city council that is having a party and doing high-fives that the “trailer park” is being shut down and the land can now be made into classier and higher tax-paying apartments. What’s the true story? The park sure doesn’t look that bad in the photos..