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azcentral: Arizona mobile home parks are disappearing. This nonprofit wants to save them

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It was Christmas Eve of 2020 when John Egan received a notice in the mail: In 90 days, the mobile home park where he and his wife lived in Durango, Colorado, would be put up for sale.

Egan and his neighbors had already been through two prior sales of the park, Animas View, which came with rent increases, management changes and uncertainty about the park's future. But a state law passed earlier that year now gave the residents the right of first refusal to buy the park themselves.

All they needed was $14 million.

It seemed nearly impossible for the park’s 120 households, most of which were low-income. But with the help of local government...

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Our thoughts on this story:

OK, reality check time. Resident-Owned Communities has done 300 deals since inception. There are around 44,000 mobile home parks in the U.S. If you take 300 and divide by 44,000 you get .0068 which equates to .68 of 1%. That’s nothing, right? So can we PLEASE stop hearing this same narrative about how this concept can save park residents from “evil” park buyers and bring forth unicorns and rainbows and the end of world hunger because it’s such a tiny impact that it’s not worth this much discussion.

I one time found a robin that fell out of a nest and took it to a veterinarian. It may have survived to adulthood, I don’t know. But you could hardly write an article claiming that I was the potential solution to all lost robins. That’s what this reminds me of.

Yakima Herald: Costs and stress mount in some of Yakima County mobile home parks

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On a gray day in September, more than a dozen residents gathered at White Dove Mobile Home Park on Rudkin Road in Union Gap to share stories and stresses brought on by their landlord.

In Regal Estates Mobile Home Park off Fruitvale Boulevard in Yakima, 30 people gathered in their community building on a warm weeknight. Young parents brought their kids and older residents made their way on wheelchairs. They filled seats, leaned against walls and spoke about their common concerns.

At Valley Community, a mobile home park tucked behind a 7-Eleven on Fruitvale Boulevard and 16th Avenue, residents stopped to talk on their front stoops and front...

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Our thoughts on this story:

The park owner says that they “do not want to displace residents, but the company needs to increase revenues to meet the costs of improving the parks. That’s the gospel truth. You cannot bring old parks back to life without increasing rents significantly.

So what will it be: 1) acknowledge that new owners are doing great things by bringing old parks back to life and embrace the reality that rents must go up or 2) fight them tooth and nail and make nobody want to do this important task anymore?

The bottom line is, has been, and always will be: LOW RENTS = REDEVELOPMENT. That’s never going to change.

Click 2 Houston: ‘Just overwhelming’: Entire Galveston County mobile home community evicted

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GALVESTON COUNTY, Texas – In what locals call Dickinson, but what is actually an area of Galveston County under Texas City jurisdiction, dozens of families are being forced out of their homes.

The dilapidated state of the Green Villa Mobile Home Community is not up to code according to the City Fire Marshal and code enforcement officials.

Trash, debris, and belongings are strewn across the property, as the landlord has the task of clearing the land and abandoning the business.

Residents who cannot afford to move their homes, an undertaking that often costs many thousands of dollars, are simply abandoning them.

“I actually quit my job to...

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Our thoughts on this story:

If there was an apartment complex that had code violations, the city would no doubt go to them and say “here’s what we need to get done to bring this up to code and here are some grants and programs to help pay for it and take all the time you need” and they would work together. But when it’s a mobile home park, the city says “fix this up or we’re shutting you down and you have zero time to get it done” and approach it from a confrontational perspective.

Galveston clearly wanted this park gone. Period. Let’s not pretend otherwise.

WFTS Tampa Bay: Make changes, or move: Pinellas leaders write in letter to Twin City Mobile Home Park residents

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PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. — Hurricane Idalia continues to make waves for people living at Twin City Mobile Home Park in Pinellas County.

Some people say they still haven’t been able to return because of flood damage, and now county leaders are saying they either need to make the repairs to come up to code or they’ll be forced to move out. 

 

“This has been hell,” Erin Roth explained to ABC Action News. Roth still hasn’t been able to sleep in her own bed at the Twin City Mobile Home Park after Hurricane Idalia flooded her community.

“I have a 14-year-old. So, it's been pretty rough not being able to come home,” she added.

We’ve met with...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Why would you think that Pinellas country would tell people to raise their mobile homes up 9’ in the air or move out? Because they thought it would be too obvious if they said 90’ in the air. Clearly this story has the optics that the county is simply trying to raise the bar as high as possible to get rid of the tenants, the mobile homes demolished, and then have the land converted into a use that they like more.

San Antonio Report: Affordable housing co-op takes shape at Riverside Terrace trailer park

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At least 26 San Antonians are poised to become landowners this month, pending the final signatures for a unique, $6 million cooperative ownership and renovation deal at a trailer park that was facilitated by the city’s housing bond.

“It would give everybody at the trailer park a sense of pride for their land,” Valerie A. Valenzuela, who has lived at Riverside Terrace Manufactured Home Community for about two years, told the San Antonio Report earlier this week. “We’re not just tenants.”

It’s the first time the city has directly invested in a project where residents have shared ownership of the land under the homes they own through a...

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Our thoughts on this story:

NEWS BULLETIN:

The earlier article said that the residents bought their mobile home park for $6 million with 46 lots but this one says 26 lots. If that’s true, then they paid $260,000 per household so they could have the honor of living in a high-density trailer park. I hope this article is wrong on that lot count because – if not – this is a total scandal. There’s no way you can spin that as being in the best interests of anyone.

9NEWS: Westwood mobile home park residents save community from potential redevelopment

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With help from a nonprofit, residents are raising $11.5 million to purchase the mobile home park to prevent them from being displaced.

Watch Video from Source.

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Our thoughts on this story:

When you spend $11.5 million to save 76 mobile homes crammed into a tiny parcel of land you just spent $151,315 per household to live in a tiny trailer. I’m sure the park owner is delighted to have scored this much for the land but how do rationalize these numbers from a non-profit perspective? If you said to these folks “here, I’m going to give you $151,315 cash OR you can stay in your trailer” NOBODY would have taken them up on the offer to stay. They’d take the cash, drive another 30 minutes out, and buy a brick house. I think there’s some type of disconnect going on between non-profits, reality, and the true wishes of the people who live in these properties.

KSAT: Residents of a South Side mobile home park prepare to become its owners

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SAN ANTONIO – When Joe Valdez and his neighbors at Riverside Terrace first met with the ROC USA in May, they were shocked and frightened to learn that their South Side mobile home park was up for sale.

“First thing everybody thought was like, ‘How much time?’” Valdez said. “And this is everybody, the entire — ‘How much time do I have before I have to leave? Do I have to move out?’”

But residents quickly learned they may not have to move out, far from it.

Instead, with the help of ROC USA, the park’s residents formed a co-op, the Mission Trails Community Association, which is set to become the official owner of the 46-unit park next week.

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Our thoughts on this story:

Not to be a party-pooper but there are two glaring problems with this story:

  1. The residents paid over $130,000 per lot to own the land. Including the value of the mobile homes on those lots they are in this deal at maybe $160,000 per lot. Based on my memory of real estate in Texas, you can buy a nice brick house for that amount in many markets. Wouldn’t they have been better off simply giving these folks $160,000 cash to go buy a brick house free and clear? I’m confused.
  2. The article admits that this is the third resident-owned community in the entire state of Texas. Since Texas has the largest number of mobile home parks in the entire U.S. that’s a stunning admission. When woke media discusses how residents buying communities is the solution to all the world’s problems they never include the actual statistics of how many of these deals actually close. It’s a really, really, really, really, tiny number – and then half that again.

My Champlain Valley: Recovery funds lag for Vermont mobile home parks

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Montpelier, VT- A number of Vermont’s mobile home parks were destroyed or damaged in July’s flooding, and Gov. Phil Scott’s administration has agreed to pick up the pieces.

But housing officials say that help has been hard to come by for residents whose mobile home were damaged.

State leaders started to draw up a plan to make mobile homes, one of Vermont’s largest sources of affordable housing, more resilient to natural disasters like flooding.

In mid-August, Gov. Scott announced a plan to ensure mobile homeowners would not have to pay to demolish their homes that may have been destroyed or condemned following the floods.

Scott said that...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Looks like Vermont makes really good maple syrup but really bad bureaucrats. Can you believe anyone could make such a monumental mess out of something as simple as buying a bunch of mobile homes and delivering them to the spots where the wiped-out homes used to stand? Read this article if you need a refresher on Reagan’s quote that the scariest words in the English language are “I’m from the government and I’m here to help”.

The Telegraph: License granted to problem mobile home park after improvements

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EDWARDSVILLE — A mobile home park license was renewed for a long-standing trouble spot in Chouteau Township after significant improvements have been made by new ownership.

At a meeting Monday, the Madison County Board’s Public Safety Committee approved a license for Lakeshore Estates Mobile Home Park, also known as Lakeside Mobile Home Park, located at 3120 W. Chain of Rocks Road, Granite City, just outside of Granite City Interstate 270. 

In July, the committee had balked at renewing the license because of numerous issues.

The mobile home park was one of several that changed hands in August 2021 and has been the subject of multiple...

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Our thoughts on this story:

This is a reminder that 99% of city governments just want the mobile home parks in their boundaries to follow the rules and don’t want to shut them down. It’s a shame that  Orlando – in the above story – had not shared this attitude and was then complicit in the residents becoming homeless. Cities and park owners can either work as a team and everyone wins or at odds and nobody wins.

Spectrum News 13: 'Some of us don't have a place to go': Mobile home residents face eviction

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The Orange County Sheriff's Office has served eviction notices to all residents living at the Lake Downey Mobile Home Park.

Many say they got eviction notices last week that warned them to vacate by Nov. 7, or risk arrest.

“It’s hard having kids going through this,” said Lynette Colon, a parent of four children who has lived at the park for the past year. “Some of us don’t have a place to go, some of us don’t have an income.”

Colon says her husband works but does not make enough to afford a new place in Orlando. The couple was paying $1,600 a month for a three-bedroom mobile home unit.

Water to the units has also been shut off, leaving...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Yet another false narrative. Orlando is fining this park owner $1,000 per day because they don’t like the condition of the property. So anyone would simply shut down, right? The city must have known that when they started fining him. So the correct analysis of this story is that the City of Orlando is apparently wanting to force this park out of business and have succeeded in doing so. Shame on this reporter for making it look like the shutdown was the park owner’s fault. He simply gave in to the city’s apparent agenda.

The News Tribune: Rent hike displaces residents after a $7 million mobile home park sale near Puyallup

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Wayne Kiser is a clock collector. He has more than a dozen clocks, all of which have different shapes, sizes and colors. Some are over 100 years old. Most of them are hanging on his living room wall while the rest are sitting on a shelf. The clocks show that time doesn’t stand still for anybody, even for Kiser. Early next year, the 64-year-old said he must decide whether to sell all his clocks or give them away. The new owner of the mobile home park he lives in just outside Puyallup is raising the rent. That means Kiser and his neighbors are deciding whether to sign a new lease or leave. He and other tenants say they’re facing a more than...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Same false narrative as the above article. A simple Bestplaces.net review of Puyallup, WA shows the median home price of $499,500 and a three-bedroom apartment rent of $2,470 per month. The new mobile home park lot rent is $805 per month. That’s right, it’s 66% less than the apartment rent. Yet somehow the article claims the rent is exorbitant. It’s not. Not even close, In fact, it’s ridiculously cheap based on actual math with no optics attached.

Instead, like the above article, the truth is that the residents who are living on $1,000 per month of social security should not be living in an area this expensive. If you are retired you have the ability to live anywhere free from any need for employment, right? So why would you live in an area with prices this crazy high? You could move to Missouri and live on $1,000 per month all day long – but NOT in Washington or California.

The other part of this story should maybe be that social security is not nearly enough to live on at $1,000 per month, right? But the social security program is essentially insolvent so it can’t give any increases.

The bottom line to this is that nobody likes the rents going up, but people have to be realistic in their expectations of housing in retirement. That’s the true narrative in this story.

Missoula Current: MOBILE HOME RESIDENTS ARE SEIZING THE OPPORTUNITY TO BUY THEIR PARKS

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(Washington State Standard) Mobile home parks are coming up for sale and there are signs that a new law giving residents a chance to buy them is working.

Since mid-July, 11 properties have gone on the market in Washington and residents of seven are using tools from the three-month-old law to pursue ownership, the state House Housing Committee heard Thursday.

The other four “didn’t pencil out for folks,” Brigid Henderson, manager of the Manufactured/Mobile Home Relocation Assistance Program told lawmakers.

There are 1,169 registered mobile home parks and manufactured housing communities in Washington. Collectively they have 65,175 spaces...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Now you have the State of Washington trying to emulate the new laws of New York on tenant first right of refusal. That means that Washington park owners may also now have to wait an additional 70 days while their tenants do absolutely nothing to buy the park but simply waste time and energy. Again, this concept has a 99% FAILURE RATE! That’s the actual stat. Why would anyone bother to spend time crafting and enacting laws that fail 99% of the time? Because it panders to their base, who have no idea how pointless it all is apparently.

Rochester Business Journal: ‘Right of first refusal’ law may hinder investment in manufactured home parks

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Homeowners within manufactured home parks now have the right of first refusal should the property owner enter an agreement to sell.

The homeowners and/or the affiliated homeowners association must be provided with details of a proposed sale and then would have 60 days to indicate their intent to match the offer. That match would then need to be completed within 140 days.

The legislation was signed into law on Wednesday by Gov. Kathy Hochul and is meant to give residents “a fair shot at protecting their communities from owners who don’t share their vision for the mobile home park,” bill sponsor James Skoufis (D-Cornwall) said in a news...

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Our thoughts on this story:

At least one person in the room is still sane:

But the new requirement may adversely impact investment, said Jeff Cook, CEO of Rochester-based Cook Properties, the state’s largest owner of manufactured housing communities. “This onerous extra step represents another hurdle for owners and potential owners of these communities, who will now think twice about making investments in New York,” Cook said. 

It would be interesting to know how this “tenant right of first refusal” concept began in the first place. It certainly is not based on fact. Currently over 99% of mobile home park transactions do NOT include the tenants buying the park. Anyone who has ever sold a park to the tenants knows that it takes forever and a huge percentage of those then fail to materialize (as no non-profits want to guarantee the debt, which is required).

These kind of laws make as much sense as giving each and every person in the State of New York the first option to buy the Brooklyn Bridge – and about as useful.

Bangor Daily News: New law hopes to keep investors out of Maine’s mobile home parks

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A new law goes into effect Wednesday that proponents say will curb investor activity in Maine’s manufactured housing market, which is on the rise.

LD 1931 will require the owners of manufactured housing communities — sometimes known as mobile home parks — to give residents notice if the land under their homes is going to be put up for sale. Though many people own their manufactured homes, they don’t own the lots under them and pay a monthly fee to rent those from a landowner.

About 10 percent of Maine’s population lives in a manufactured home, according to U.S. census data.

Landowners now have to give residents 60 days from the time of...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Yet another state wants to drink the Kool-Aid that “resident first option to buy mobile home parks” is the solution to world hunger, global warming, drought and pestilence. If I got a dollar for every mobile home park that is successfully purchased by the residents in Maine. I’d have … zero dollars.

102.9 Rewind Radio: Cranbrook curbside waste & recycling collection no longer being offered for strata communities, mobile home parks

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The City of Cranbrook’s curbside garbage and recycling collection services will not be offered to strata communities and mobile home parks following a decision from city council last night.

This decision comes amid higher costs for equipment and fuel while gripping with a need to hire more staff.

Service levels among staff and collection equipment are nearing capacity, and adding new neighbourhoods in strata and mobile home parks will strain service levels in the community.

The City says it realizes it may need to revisit this decision as Cranbrook continues its growth and development.

See more information from the City of Cranbrook...

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Our thoughts on this story:

If this article says what I think it says, the city is discontinuing curbside trash just to mobile home parks due to city budget constraints. Obviously, that makes zero sense. Why are mobile home park residents singled out as not being worthy of curbside trash? Personally, I think the park owner should go to HUD and get their opinion on this.

SRQ Magazine: Steube Wants Mobile Home Parks Eligible for FEMA Support

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The Federal Emergency Management Agency provides reimbursement and support to individual homeowners for debris removal after storms. But U.S. Rep. Greg Steube, R-Sarasota, said after Hurricane Ian struck South Sarasota County, it took a special waiver to allow private mobile home parks and homeowner associations to receive the same support.

The congressman on Friday filed legislation in the House to formalize a process and allow private communities to receive FEMA assistance. The Clean Up Disasters and Emergencies with Better Recovery and Immediate Support (Clean Up DEBRIS) Act would make any common interest community, including housing...

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Our thoughts on this story:

MY HAT IS OFF TO THIS GUY!

Steube said the mobile home parks and communities he dealt with had the same recovery needs as individual homeowners and should receive the same support.

America needs more politicians like this guy – people who don’t waste time on nonsense (tenant first options that never materialize) and focus on real issues like putting homes back together after a major storm and flooding.

Bravo!

AZ Central: Central Phoenix trailer park to be replaced with housing to serve the 'missing middle'

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Housing, offices and a small-scale restaurant or cafe are part of a proposed redevelopment in central Phoenix on a site that used to include a mobile home park.

Phoenix-based Venue Projects bought the 2.5-acre site at 14th Place and Highland Avenue in 2017, Lorenzo Perez, co-founder of Venue Projects, said.

“My business partner, Jon Kitchell, and his wife live in that neighborhood,” Perez said. “For years, Jon had been trying to acquire the park. He was drawn to the old 1950s trailers on the site.”

Modern mobile home park was the hope

When they bought the park, Venue Projects had intended to rehabilitate the site as a trailer park, with...

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Our thoughts on this story:

It’s interesting how people can be manipulated by a “spin”. In this case you have a group that bought a mobile home park, found the land was worth more in a different use, and was able to demolish the park without any pushback because they claimed it was all about focusing on this corny “missing middle” spin. The guy with the boatyard project in the earlier article should have told the city he was working on the “missing middle” and they would have said “yes, that’s extremely important to our city so go ahead and tear those last two trailers down” – without even knowing what he was talking about.

Reminds me of when they re-labeled “garbagemen” into “environmental engineers”. My hat is off to the “missing middle” label – pure genius.

2 Urban Girls: Senior citizens set to be displaced from Carson mobile home park Nov. 1

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Court Hearing Scheduled on October 31, 2023 to Decide Their Future

Low-income seniors are threatened with imminent eviction from their homes by a multi-billion dollar development corporation at Imperial Avalon Mobile Estates (located at 21207 Avalon Boulevard in Carson, California).

The developer ordinally sought approval to close the Mobile home park, displacing a total of 373 Carson citizens from their homes, during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. The approval process was supposed to include public participation, but lockdown orders in place at the time prevented many residents from meaningfully participating the City Planning...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Only in California …

The approval was ultimately granted in 2020, in part based on promises from the developer to ensure no resident would become homeless through the closure process. As the closure process comes to an end, the developer has failed to ensure the residents are relocated to safe and affordable, local housing as promised.

How can you task a mobile home park owner with what the U.S. Government itself can’t even accomplish (the waiting list for Section 8 is years long, right?). Where in the world would you find cheap housing in California and what keeps any resident from simply saying “I don’t feel this proposed housing is safe and affordable, in my opinion”?

What a stupid, stupid provision.

AXIOS Richmond: Richmond's new affordable housing idea: Reimagining mobile home parks

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Just over three years ago, Bermuda Estates mobile home park in Chesterfield desperately needed repairs. It was filled with aging trailers and neglected infrastructure.

  • Today it's a community in bloom, with a newly paved main road and dotted with cheerful front porches on some of the new homes, backyard vegetable gardens and proud residents eager to show off their flower beds.

What's happening: Project:HOMES, a Richmond-based affordable housing nonprofit, purchased the park in 2020 through a unique partnership with Chesterfield County with the goal of keeping residents in their homes and keeping those homes affordable.

Why it...

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Our thoughts on this story:

This article is incredibly misleading. This is a 46-space park that was purchased by a group of non-profits at a cost of around $2.5 million. On top of that they are putting in what looks like new $100,000 front-entry singlewides and then selling them at a “subsidized” loss of an additional $75,000 per home. So each lot, with home, is costing the non-profits around $130,000 in cash out of their pocket, plus another $25,000 by the tenant, for a total of $155,000. Now I’ve never been to Richmond, VA but I can’t believe that spending $155,000 for a trailer in a trailer park is the best use for that money. These residents could buy regular stick-built homes with nice yards for that amount.

If the title of this article had been “Richmond Spends $155,000 per Household on a Trailer Park” it would probably not have the same positive perception. I wonder if the folks who give to these non-profits have any idea of how their money is spent and if they are OK with all of this?

Times Union: State steps in again to ask mobile home park owner to refrain from harassing tenants

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SARATOGA — For the second time, the state has asked the owner of a mobile home park on Saratoga Lake to stop harassing and threatening tenants with eviction, allowing rattled residents a temporary reprieve from the owner's wish to accelerate redevelopment plans.

The state Division of Homes and Community Renewal sent a letter Sept. 26 to owner Michael Giovanone, reiterating that he must preserve the 3.2-acre Saratoga Lakeview Mobile Home Park as a park until 2026. 

“This letter is also meant to remind you of your legal obligation to fulfill your duties under the Park’s contract to purchase and the Certification you signed on March 31, 2021,...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Same pathetic story as last week. A guy wants to redevelop a dilapidated trailer park into a nice boat storage business. But the bureaucrats will go to any lengths to block him because there are two trailers left in the park and the powers that be have some rationale that the single most important thing on earth is that this guy be denied his right to finish clearing the property until 2026. I know none of the facts but simply reading this article leads you to the conclusion that 1) either somebody at the city or state has it in for this guy or 2) the city and county leaders are basically worthless. But then you realize the property is in New York and you think “oh, ok now it makes sense”.

M Live: Developers plan to resubmit Ann Arbor-area mobile home park plans after judge’s ruling

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WASHTENAW COUNTY, MI - Property owners and developers who have proposed a roughly 500-unit mobile home park north of Ann Arbor will move forward with their plans after a favorable court ruling in a yearslong legal battle with Ann Arbor Township.

Trial Court Judge Carol Kuhnke ruled on Wednesday, Oct. 25, that a 1975 court order permitting mobile home development on nearly 140 acres on both sides of U.S. 23 north of Warren Road was valid, something township officials have contested in court.

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Our thoughts on this story:

It’s rare that the court sides with the mobile home park developer, but this is one of those occasions. Of course, it will probably be appealed over and over and we may not know the ultimate verdict for years. By then the city will probably come up with a plan to take the property through eminent domain to build a green space (it’s happened before).

Hoodline: Sonoma County Proposes Change in Mobile Home Park Rent Policy for Enhanced Housing Affordability

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Sonoma County Board of Supervisors has proposed a change in policy to limit annual rent increases at mobile home parks to no more than 4 percent or 70 percent of the Consumer Price Index, whichever is less.

According to the County of Sonoma, Board of Supervisors Chair, Supervisor Chris Coursey, has highlighted the precarious housing state for many mobile home residents. He noted that these individuals often have fewer alternatives and struggle to manage rent increases on their park spaces.

The amendments discuss not only a cap on rent increases but also permit park owners to increase rent by up to 5 percent with each change in home...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Sure, you saw this article came out of California and you thought “oh boy, I bet this is going to be stupid”. Well, this article met your expectations. Now Sonoma, California wants to reduce the amount of rent mobile home park owners can raise each year to only 70% of CPI. Yes, that’s right – not even CPI. How does that make sense? It doesn’t. Just another reason to avoid California as a real estate market.

Times Standard: Humboldt County supervisors OK mobile home park rent control guidelines

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Editor’s note: this story has been corrected to state that Andrew Ditlevsen from Hopkins & Carley’s was referring to automatic inclusion of all residents in rent reduction claims when he said it would be brand new to him at last week’s board of supervisors meeting.

The Humboldt County Board of Supervisors approved a full set of guidelines Tuesday for rent stabilization in mobile home parks, the result of a 2016 voter initiative that aimed to protect tenants living in parks in unincorporated areas of Humboldt County.

Planning Director John Ford said the guidelines came out of Zoom workshops with tenants and park owners, from a 2019...

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Our thoughts on this story:

When a Midwesterner reads articles like this it makes them think “why would anyone want to own property in California?” What a nutty place to own a business!

Kelowna Now: Fate of West Kelowna trailer park to be discussed this week

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The fate of an existing trailer park in West Kelowna will be up for debate this week.

On Wednesday, West Kelowna’s advisory planning commission (APC) will be reviewing a rezoning request for the property at 2355 Marshall Road.

Kerr Properties is seeking council’s approval to rezone the property from the Manufactured Home Park Zone (RMP) to the Light Industrial (I1) Zone to make way for a storage unit business.

A staff report says the property falls within an area that has been identified for “industrial objectives” under the city’s Official Community Plan.

The property is adjacent to Highway 97 and in between Westlake Road and Horizon...

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Our thoughts on this story:

A group buys an old mobile home park and is going to tear it down to make way for a new self-storage facility. When asked why the park has to be torn down, the owner responds with:

“many of the homes are “well beyond” their economic life and the park itself has experienced ongoing domestic water, sanitary sewer and road infrastructure issues”

Yes, that’s right. The park needs a ton of capital-intensive work and the owner doesn’t want to do it. But when a private equity group or other new buyer tackles this type of project -- to bring an old park back to life -- they are assaulted with criticism. There probably was a rent level in which this park was worth more as a mobile home community than as a self-storage building, but it was clearly not hitting that mark. Once again, LOW RENTS = REDEVELOPMENT.

Times Union: State steps in again to ask mobile home park owner to refrain from harassing tenants

Preview:

SARATOGA — For the second time, the state has asked the owner of a mobile home park on Saratoga Lake to stop harassing and threatening tenants with eviction, allowing rattled residents a temporary reprieve from the owner's wish to accelerate redevelopment plans.

The state Division of Homes and Community Renewal sent a letter Sept. 26 to owner Michael Giovanone, reiterating that he must preserve the 3.2-acre Saratoga Lakeview Mobile Home Park as a park until 2026. 

“This letter is also meant to remind you of your legal obligation to fulfill your duties under the Park’s contract to purchase and the Certification you signed on March 31, 2021,...

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Our thoughts on this story:

This guy wants to redevelop his mobile home park into boat storage, which the zoning is correct for and already adjoins the tract. But the city is making him wait for five years to start the project despite the fact that there are only two mobile homes remaining on this piece of land. This whole situation sounds beyond idiotic to me.