Mobile Home Park News Briefing

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...

Former mobile home park getting new life

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...

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...

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 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.

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

BANGOR, Maine — Residents of Cedar Falls Mobile Home Park in Bangor Monday celebrated successfully buying the land their homes sit on and revealed plans to develop more housing at the park.

The Cedar Falls Resident Cooperative bought the park for $8 million to prevent a corporate sale that could have led to steep rent increases.

They were able to buy the property with grants and loans from the state, the City of Bangor, and local lenders and help from the Cooperative Development Institute.

Ronnie Pinkham, president of the Cedar Falls Resident Cooperative, said the process brought residents closer together.

"We did it, and today...

BROOKINGS — The impending sale of Shady Acres Mobile Home Park in Brookings means tenants must vacate their residences before April 1 — but they aren’t being left high and dry thanks to assistance provided by the Brookings Pathways Program.

Created last year with Shady Acres concerns in mind, a maximum of $350,000 in funding was allocated via a City Council vote in May. It was hoped the Pathways money would never have to be used. Well, that’s no longer the case, at least partially: Of the overall total, $180,000 was specified for three uses:

• $100,000 for rental assistance
• $65,000 for a dedicated case manager from Inter-Lakes Community...

The demolition of the Lil’ Abner mobile home park, located on Northwest 2nd Terrace in Sweetwater, Miami, began this Thursday, marking the start of a process that forces more than 900 families to leave the premises.

The first eviction notices were delivered in November, setting May 19th as the deadline for residents to relocate and make way for new housing projects.

According to NBC Miami, the owner of the park, CREI Holdings, plans to build next-generation housing on the site and has offered incentives to residents who move before the deadline.

In social media posts, heavy machinery can be seen clearing the debris of the demolished...

CBS News Miami's Ivan Taylor reports that residents claim the owner of the land did not get the proper permits and their health is at risk, despite the owner saying everything is up to code.

Hermantown, Minn., city officials have barred nearly half of the 50-plus trailers in a neglected mobile home park from occupancy because of their threat to human life, as the owner pays residents to move out so he can close the park.

After he pleaded guilty to several misdemeanor violations in early December, he was ordered to immediately make repairs to trailers without water and other essential services and fix all other code violations. St. Louis County Judge Shawn Pearson also ordered him to pay for alternate housing for a handful of residents living in the worst conditions in Maple Fields mobile home park, just outside of...

Waves lap on the Marco River, visible through the bent spokes of a mangled bicycle, flaps of metal roofing clang in the wind, mingling with live music from the Snook Inn restaurant next door. It’s as if life paused at the Port Marco manufactured home community of Marco Island. 

That is all about to change as all that remains of Port Marco — that which was not already ravaged by abandonment and hurricanes— is about to be demolished as new owners, Tailwind Group, propose a five-story redevelopment. In the small community’s place, current property owners told their neighbors of their plans for a mixed-use development with condominiums, two...

A year ago, the Littleton, Colorado mobile home park faced a potential sale when a Utah-based company offered $18 million to buy the property.

Fearing rent hikes from new owners, the park’s board rallied support from nearly all its residents to put together a purchase offer.

Sandy Cook, President of the Meadowood Village Cooperative told CBS Colorado, “The uncertainty of not being able to know where you're going to live within 12 months is so scary for people.”

So how did they swing it? Colorado law allows residents to put together an offer to match a buyout. If they can match a buyout offer, they can...

Residents of a Helena mobile home park face rent and utility fee increases after the park was sold to an out-of-state property management company, according to park residents.

Last October, the owners of the McHugh Mobile Home Park informed residents that they sold the property to Collective Parks Property Management LLC, a Washington State-based management company. 

During the ownership transition, residents received letters from the new management team stating that they shouldn’t expect changes.

“For the foreseeable future, we do not anticipate any significant...

The floors are caving in. The roofs are leaking. The walls that lack insulation invite mold. For residents of Rudd’s Mobile Home Park in Richmond’s Southside, these aren’t just minor inconveniences — they’re daily battles in a place they call home.

Unlike traditional renters, most mobile home residents own their homes. (What they rent is the land or lot under where they live.) That means when things start falling apart, the responsibility to fix them falls on their shoulders. But many say they are barely making ends meet, making expensive repairs out of reach.

Josefina is an older single woman who works only a couple days a week. For her,...

The Warren Planning Board approved the development of a controversial mobile home park at its Thursday meeting, according to the Midcoast Villager.

As the housing crisis continues in Maine and hits some regions such as the midcoast especially hard, communities have taken broader steps to address a critical housing shortage that has made living unaffordable for many residents. Advocates say mobile homes can help alleviate the housing crisis while providing better living standards and cheaper rates than similar stick-built developments. Modular homes can cost 20 percent less than a similar stick-built house.

The park in Warren will be off...

Mountain View City Council wants to help mobile home residents by further limiting how much landlords can raise rents each year, but park owners are warning the new rules will make their operations unsustainable.

Council tomorrow (March 11) will consider limiting rent hikes to 3% or 60% of the consumer price index, whichever is lower.

Existing rent control limits rent hikes to 100% of the CPI or 5% of rent.

The proposed rule change comes after two straight years of greater than 5% inflation, prompting residents to complain that they can’t afford the higher rents.

“For those who can barely afford the expenses now, the future is bleak in...

Resident Gudelia Blatt called the situation “horrible,” describing flames and destruction at the park.

Roberto Pullido, who had already vacated his home, broke down in tears upon seeing the remains.

His wife said they didn’t even know about Sunday’s fire until they saw it on the news the following day.

Residents say the sprawling park, once filled with families, has become a haven for intruders, squatters, and vandals as security dwindles.

“There are many people from the outside — people who have no houses, thieves,” Blatt said.

The Pullidos had seen evidence of squatters even before the fire.

“They broke a big window and got in, opening...

In an effort to control who can live at seniors-only mobile home parks, the city of Petaluma is suing Youngstown Mobile Home Park and Daniel Weisfield, co-founder of Three Pillars Communities, which operates the park. It is also suing mortgage company Fannie Mae, as it “holds a recorded interest” in the property, as well as 50 other unidentified individuals.

The city seeks to prevent Youngstown’s owners and operators from unlawfully ignoring the city’s senior mobile home park overlay, which was approved in October 2023 and requires park owners to continue designating Youngstown a seniors-only park.

Its suit contends park officials are...

Unable to provide repairs needed for city compliance, the owner of as mobile home park in Hermantown announced closure plans. Last week, we got the latest update on what was happening over at Maple Field. The court has ordered the landlord to present himself in person on April 8th for an evidentiary hearing.

54 lots fill the mobile home park known as Maple Field. The location rents 46 mobile homes units with the remainder of the dwellings occupied by owners who pay to lease the space in the park. Recently, tenants have been receiving notices of termination as the owner of the park seeks to close the park because of the hazard living...