Mobile Home Park News Briefing

Twenty years ago, Tina Hammond’s future looked bright. She’d just graduated from Gonzaga University with a masters degree. She owned a home in Spokane, and her finances seemed in order. 

“My life was really good,” Hammond said.

Then the 2008 recession hit. She couldn’t find work in her field and took a minimum wage job. In  just a couple of years, she burned through her savings and her 401k, desperately trying to pay her mortgage.

In 2010, Hammond lost her home. 

Over the following decade, she worked to stabilize her finances — by moving back in with her family. In 2019, her father died, leaving her an inheritance large enough to buy a...

I was working in eastern Kentucky last fall when I received a call from a woman facing her second eviction. Months earlier, her apartment had been sold to a new investor, and rising rents forced her out. Now, nearing 80, she couldn’t find another place she could afford. 

When we finally found her, she was sleeping on a couch in someone else’s cramped trailer, unsure how long they’d let her stay. Seeing us, she broke down sobbing — apologizing for losing the apartment we’d helped her get.

Like many in her situation, she blamed herself. But she wasn’t the only person I met who had lost their home after a corporate purchase and sudden rent...

HOUSTON — After more than 50 families were forced to leave a north Houston mobile home, several former residents are now struggling financially and seeking legal protections for others in their situation. 

Residents at the County Road Mobile Home Park first received eviction notices this past September after the property was sold to a new owner, Summit Acquisitions. They were told to leave by the end of the year, but after public pressure, the landlord extended the deadline to April 8.

Marta De La Garza lived in the park with her family for five years. She said the forced move has been painful and costly.

“My daughters are in the...

The Fremont County Public Trustee’s office has received two separate foreclosures encompassing four mobile home parks in Cañon City.

Rivermaze Cooperative includes the parks at 1634 Poplar and 295 S. R...

MITCHELL — The city of Mitchell is considering purchasing a series of city blocks north of Hitchcock Park that is home to a mobile home estate.

This comes as part of a Mitchell City Council decision to set aside $1 million toward purchasing land for economic development, made at the March 17 regular council meeting. The council will consider ratifying the purchase agreement at the April 7 city council meeting for the properties, which have a total assessed value of $885,726.

All mobile homes will be removed and replaced with a mix of parking, housing and apartments, according to Mitchell Mayor Jordan Hanson.

Those who rent on a...

When Liza Fleming-Ives helped the first group of Maine residents buy their own mobile home park in 2009, there was little interest from out-of-state corporate investors in outbidding them.

That’s not true today. More than a fifth of Maine’s mobile home parks traditionally operated by local “mom-and-pop” types are now owned by these investors, according to a Bangor Daily News analysis of state data published last year.

Of Maine’s 32 largest parks, which have more than a third of the state’s mobile homes, 20 are now owned by corporate investors including Sun Communities, Phillips International and Boa Vida, according to a report released by...

KALAMAZOO, MI — These are uncertain times when it comes to funding for housing, to put it mildly.

County housing projects rely on funding from the "Homes for All" housing millage, from philanthropic sources, from state dollars, from the federal government, and from a variety of other sources, Kalamazoo County Housing Director Mary Balkema points out.  

They work in federal PILOT (payment in lieu of taxes) arrangements. They get community-donated furniture for the new manufactured homes at Sugarloaf. 

But one source behind the efforts to improve housing stock and get people into shelters suddenly seems to be at risk — the federal...

SCHOFIELD, Wis. (WSAW)— More than three years after residents vacated their trailers at Northern Mobile Home Park on Grand Avenue in Schofield, crews are working to finalize clearing the property.

Crews made significant headway the last week March, demolishing the trailers at 281 Grand Avenue. As of April 3, all the mobile homes have been demolished and removed from the area.

At its peak occupancy, about 60 trailers were on the property. In 2020, concerns about the property and the condition of the structures led to legal action. In November 2021, the remaining residents were evicted. Since that time, the property has become an eyesore in...

Prancing across the living room last week, Emely De La Garza took one look at her father disassembling a television and her mother frantically packing boxes and declared with the sweeping authority only a 5-year-old can possess:  “This is a mess!”

A mess indeed. Her parents, Erick and Marta De La Garza, stayed up the entire night packing in preparation for a moving company to transport their home from Country Road Park, a trailer park in northwest Houston, to a new mobile home community in Spring.

The De La Garzas — Erick, Marta, Emely and her older sister, Yocelin — are one of 53 low-income families living in the community forced to...

From a clam factory to a manufactured home community, less than two acres of prime waterfront in Marco Island is proposed for development into a small resort and marina.

Global Investment Properties LLC and Unionville Sportsman Club Inc. and Kyle Smith are listed as the buyers in Collier County property records. The entities purchased Marco Island Trailer Park and its docks, also known as the Doxsee properties, for $16 million and a contiguous property for $2 million in April 2023. That same year, Global Investment Properties bought a house on Sun Drop Court for $1.6 million.

Smith is a founder and principal at Tailwind Group, based in...

Down $15,000 of her life's savings, Frankie Schwarzburg watched her husband load a moving trailer with a bittersweet memento — her daughter's quinceañera dress purchased for a day her family spent ages saving up for, even as they learned they were about to lose everything.

Schwarzburg and around 50 other residents, some of whom have lived at Country Road mobile home park for more than 30 years, must now leave the community after the owner of the land it sits on announced a plan to sell the property last fall. The plastic-wrapped quinceañera dress, the Magnolia trees in Schwarzburg's yard, her children and her entire home must go. 

When John Geary learned that Fox Run Mobile Home Park in Lewiston was for sale, he feared an out-of-state investor would swoop in, raise the lot rents and leave the primarily senior residents of the small community “high and dry.”

Geary, 78, a retired lawyer, has lived in the park for seven years, and last fall helped mobilize his fellow residents to form the Fox Run Community Cooperative in an attempt to buy the park.

The group offered $2.64 million, but after a competitive counteroffer with difficult terms for the co-op to meet under a tight deadline, the sellers ultimately accepted the lower offer of $2.6 million from BoaVida, a...

Marge Wisniewski moved into Northville Crossing, a large manufactured housing park outside Detroit, a little over a decade ago. A former health-care administrator, now retired, Wisniewski says she was tired of renting and wanted to try something new. She loved the home, a double-wide mobile trailer, and the community, which has a big swimming pool, a gym and a banquet room for residents. And it was affordable: She could build equity in the trailer, and the lot rent was just $425 a month.

A few years after she bought her trailer, Wisniewski says, the park’s corporate owners started steadily increasing the rent even as conditions and...

BRUNSWICK, Maine — When Celeste Yakawonis was younger, she thought she would spend the rest of her life in her riverfront home on six acres of land in Turner.

But that was before Yakawonis’s husband died, leaving her to live in the large farmhouse alone. 

“Can you see how big that was, for me, one person rattling around?” she said, pointing to a framed photo of the home powdered with snow. “I just couldn’t take care of it.”

Without her husband, Yakawonis said she felt overwhelmed and isolated. But she was advised not to make big decisions too soon after the loss. She kept the home for a year before deciding to sell it. When she...

Private equity firms are buying up land in mobile home parks across the nation, and some New Jersey lawmakers have a plan to stop residents from experiencing double-digit rent hikes.

A bill, S2953, working its way through the New Jersey Legislature would put a 3% cap on rent increases in the state’s “manufactured home” or mobile home communities.

Any annual rent hikes higher than 3% would have to receive approval from the state’s Department of Community Affairs, under the plan. Landlords requesting approval for the rent increase would have to show that current rents aren’t enough to cover the cost of maintenance and tax increases.

The...

Some residents of the Hidden Village Mobile Home Park in Orofino, Idaho are worried they are being priced out of their homes. The new park owners are raising rents and said they have made improvements to the community, but people fear they won’t be able to pay.

Floyd Eyneart’s manufactured home has a big white porch. Inside, the walls are covered with art and photographs. 

“ I’ve lived here for 27 years and I’m a veteran, my wife passed away four and a half years ago, and I can’t afford to live here if they keep jacking the rent up,” he said. 

Most residents of mobile home parks own their homes, but not the land beneath them. About two...

LANSING, Mich.(WLNS)—Residents of a mobile home park say they’ve been given just a few days’ notice that they need to move. 

Residents at Kristana Mobile Home Park in DeWitt Township told 6 News they were given a notice Friday stating the park would be closing on April 1, this coming Tuesday. 

In the letter, management says the park will be closing due to “declining occupancy rates” and the inability to maintain the community’s infrastructure. 

Management did say they would provide temporary housing for 30 days. 

Neighbors say this notice was dated for the 24th but wasn’t put on their doors until Friday. 

Jason Eldridge, a resident at...

The Marshall County Commission listened to Mike Carnes; a citizen concerned over the possibility of a mobile home park on Needmore Road.

“I’m here to speak in opposition to this mobile home development we’ve got going on Needmore Road but I’m not here alone. I’m here with a group from my community, I’m here with some 400 names on a petition. These people are made up from anything from elderly people, young families with small children that lives in our area, who are all very concerned about our community. Your taxpayers and your voters are here to voice our concerns on this matter,” Carnes said to the commission.

“It is our understanding...

Arcata’s program to help mobile home owners repair their houses has begun. 

The Manufactured Housing Opportunity & Revitalization Program (MORE) pays for mobile home repairs, if the homes are in a mobile home park and owned by someone making less than 80% of Humboldt’s median income. Contractors hired by the city do the work. 

The program focuses on repairing violations of health and safety codes, as well as improving ADA accessibility. 

Arcata announced the program last year after being given a $3 million grant to fund the project by the California Department of Housing and Community Development. 

Arcata’s Director of Community...

DEWITT TWP, Mich. (WILX) - People who live at Kristana Mobile Home Park in Dewitt Township are in shock after a notice showed up on their front doors saying they have until April first to move out.

The notice appeared on Friday but was dated Monday, March 24.

“We’re completely blindsided by this,” said Jason Eldridge, a resident.

The mobile home park said it’s closing due to declining occupancy rates and its inability to maintain community infrastructure.

“Since they haven’t been able to drive everybody out of here by not doing anything now they’re just trying to throw us out,” said resident Steven Snider.

The notice posted on...

Former mobile home park getting new life

Residents of the Little Woods mobile home villa in Petaluma are searching for a way forward after receiving eviction notices en masse recently.

It's the latest move in a protracted fight between dozens of residents hoping to keep an affordable roof overhead; city leaders trying to balance complicated rules and tenant rights; and mobile home park owners who say their right to a fair profit is being violated.

KRCB's Noah Abrams caught up with Jennifer Sawhney of the Petaluma Argus-Courier about the situation.

Noah Abrams: "Jennifer Sawhney, welcome to KRCB. So, can you tell me a little bit just to start about Little Woods?"

"Where is it? How...

Housing has been front and center during the 2025 Legislative session, no more so than in the ongoing battle over a so-called rent stabilization bill that would cap annual increases at 7%. Less noticed is a bill sponsored by Rep. April Connors, R-Tri-Cities, that would treat manufactured homes like real property instead of vehicles. The change could dramatically lower the cost of ownership.

The impact would be limited to start. Connors’ bill would apply to manufactured homes in parks where residents own the land, called “cooperatively owned” parks. There are 30 - going on 31 - such parks in the state, with about 1,700 homes.

That number...

The entire population of a Petaluma mobile home park received eviction notices Monday from the park’s owners.

Residents of 71 homes at Little Woods Mobile Villa received notices Monday from Harmony Communities, a Stockton-based company managing the park, stating that “Little Woods Mobile Villa ... is exercising its right to terminate your tenancy for the purpose of permanently closing the park.”

Residents now have one year to find another home and move out, the company confirmed.

“When I opened it and saw the 12-month notice, part of me said, ‘Yeah, that’s just like them to do this,” said park resident Chris Brown about Harmony...

The property with hundreds of home lots and amenities in the northern metro area last sold 14 years ago for less than a third as much money.