Mobile Home Park News Briefing

Other than L.L. Bean I’m not that familiar with what Maine provides for America other than a whole bunch of woke nonsense. This new concept of mobile home park specific rent control is so dumb that even an academic from Duke University sees the problem:

Charles Becker, an economist at Duke University who studies the mobile home market, said that while keeping affordable housing affordable is important, he agrees with Rollain that rent control is not the best way to contain those costs. I’m uneasy about outright rent control because it essentially transfers ownership rights fairly arbitrarily,” Becker said. “If it were me, I would build new communities with city [or] county money to let market forces keep costs down.”

So what’s next? I’m sure this concept will be tested in the courts and, if rent control prevails, the park will be torn down and redeveloped into a better use that has no rent control. Of course, it will first be offered to the residents who will fail to raise the money needed to buy it (as already happened before) and will then be homeless. The city gets its secret dream of no mobile home parks and, at the same the time, can pretend that they did it all to save the residents from “evil” landlords.

This story is wrong on so many levels.

FEMA is demanding that all park residents who were flooded in Hurricane Helene raise their mobile homes two feet above the base floodplain elevation (BFE) to get their permits to move back in after Hurricane Helene wrecked their homes. Now the city has agreed to give these victims temporary permits for one year so they can make repairs and move back in while they save up enough to raise the mobile homes up in the air, which they clearly cannot afford to ever do. This is basically forcing them to invest their life savings into short-term repairs only to lose their homes a year from now when they can’t afford to raise them up in the air at a cost of thousands of dollars. In the hard-money lending business that is called “loan to own” in which the lender hopes for the borrower to default so they can take the property away. This proposal is equally sinister.

People complain that mobile home park owners are cruel to raise the rent $10 per month but FEMA and city hall, in this case, are literally destroying these people’s lives – and gutting their savings – with impossible demands that are clearly never going to be successfully accomplished.

Residents find red tags on their doors before inspections even take place

Yup, it’s pretty clear what’s going on. Cities are loving FEMA’s stance that opens the door for them to get rid of all those hated mobile home park residents. City managers across America are probably on Google right now trying to figure out how much dry ice you have to drop into clouds from chartered airplanes to trigger major weather events.

Why shouldn’t California follow Maine’s example? It’s a sure-fire way to get mobile home parks torn down while giving the appearance that you are really concerned about the plight of the trailer park tenants. What a great con.

Now, following major damage, FEMA and local fire agency leaders are saying most of the homes do not meet health and safety codes. The homes must now be re-assessed to see if major construction can be done – like raising the base elevation of the home 12 feet.

See a trend here? City fathers are using FEMA as the tool to get their mobile home parks torn down and the residents out of their city limits. They must be celebrating this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to get rid of lower income folks from within their city boundaries.

The tenants want to buy their mobile home park to fend off the evil landlord that might buy it. But there’s a big problem:

The homeowner leaders of the newly formed Milner Park Community Cooperative are in active negotiations with the out-of-state investor/owner trying to purchase the Milner Mobile Home Park property. But negotiations currently find the two sides more than $2 million apart.

So the residents are asking strangers to send in $2 million to bridge the gap:

For anyone who might like to help the homeowners purchase the land under their homes, tax-deductible donations can be made through nonprofit Yampa Valley Community Foundation.

Here’s the problem: it’s not gonna happen. Not ever. Not even close.

It might be time for the “Free Rent Movement” folks to acknowledge that their “tenant-owned” fantasy just doesn’t work in real life.

In real estate, cash is king. If you have none, then don’t bother to show up to play. End of story. Standing around with a can on the street corner might score you $10 from strangers, but not $2 million.

FLOWER POWER SCORE: 10

For four years we heard the Biden administration talk about how they were going to create affordable housing. Yet, nothing ever materialized (like most of their policies). But here’s a real-life demonstration of why you will never see any new mobile home parks built in the U.S. until the end of time:

One of the night’s most debated items was William Clayton Mills’ proposal to rezone five acres on Bell Road for a mobile home park. Represented by John Dotson, the application faced steep opposition. Justin Kittle, Millie Hopkins, Attorney Andrew Lavoie, and Mike Deal stood firm against it, citing concerns about road conditions and the community’s capacity to handle additional housing. Lavoie’s call for those opposed to stand showed a room nearly full of people against the mobile homes, underscoring local resistance to the project. Ultimately, the board voted to deny the request, with only Commissioner Anthony Simmons and Timmy Rushing in favor. Even with Commissioner Conner stating that some of the people in the crowd didn't even live close to the proposed mobile home park, he still denied approval. 

I’ve applied for small park expansions before, gone to the zoning meeting, and almost needed a police escort to get to my car to save me from being lynched by the angry mob.

So ends the nonsense that you can force America’s cities and towns to build more affordable housing. You can’t. They hate mobile home parks with a passion.

FLOWER POWER SCORE: 10

Owners of mobile and manufactured homes in Maryland’s coastal communities and their insurance agents are having difficulty finding insurance coverage as carriers pull away from the market. The problem is squeezing owners who want to sell their mobile or manufactured homes. They can’t sell to buyers who need home insurance to satisfy lenders, so their pool of potential buyers is limited to those able to pay cash. Local officials are worried that this, in turn, is reducing property values.

The flood insurance business has been a scam from the beginning. It takes in around $4 billion a year nationally yet has losses maybe ten times that amount. So the insurance companies are finally pulling out. You can’t blame them. “Free Rent” folks will claim it’s the fault of evil landlords but the truth is that the insurance industry is simply no longer willing to prop up reckless behavior by sponsoring living in areas that tend to go under water on a regular basis.

FLOWER POWER SCORE: 8

Lennon, who owns eight mobile home communities, said that increase was needed because the previous owner was charging too little for too long — the park has only seen two rent hikes over the last five decades, he said. That left the park poorly maintained, he said, with a backlog of costly upgrades needed. Since his purchase, Lennon has paved roads, added fencing and installed new mailboxes, among other improvements.

Look, all of this “Free Rent Movement” nonsense is simply not going to work. If you deny a property owner’s legal right to raise rents to market levels, they’ll simply tear the park down and put something else on the land that is more profitable. Now it looks like the ‘Free Rent” folks have a new plan: let’s just buy up all the mobile home parks in the U.S. and then artificially suppress the rents. Only one problem: to service the debt, they’ll still have to raise the rent just as much. And then, of course, they’ll have to also raise the rent to account for higher prices on water, sewer, electricity, insurance, property tax, etc. By the end of the movie the tenants pay the same rent if they own it then they would with a regular investor owning it.

But it turns out worse. Because the tenants don’t really buy these properties, non-profits do. The non-profit originators go through the exercise to get up-front fees which they pocket. However, the loans are personally guaranteed by a different non-profit (the lender will not accept the tenant’s personal guarantee as they have no assets) on typically a 5-year loan term. When it comes due, the non-profit guarantor can simply lose interest in the renewal and then the property gets sold back to a regular investor. In other words, it’s a racket. And all the residents get out of the deal is lousy management and poor living conditions from the amateur management of their fellow residents. And all for the privilege of being a promo piece for the non-profits before they cut them loose.

For the truth about these “tenant owned” parks, look no further than the story of Sans Souici in Colorado https://coloradosun.com/2024/04/22/sans-souci-boulder-county-mobile-home-park-challenges/. It details the miserable failure that these deals become.

FLOWER POWER SCORE: 10

The title says it all:

“Montana’s mobile home park residents struggling to stay in their homes as lot rents rise”

So apparently in Montana the only cost that’s going up is mobile home park rent. No, wait a minute, I’m not sure that’s true. In fact, the U.S. Government’s own websites show that rent is only the fifth largest expenditure for the average America household, with health insurance, childcare, transportation and income taxes all coming in ahead of rent. Costs under “Bidenomics” went up 20% across the board for the average U.S. household. So why focus on mobile home park lot rents at all?

Of course, it’s because today’s young journalists are all members of the “Free Rent Movement” and since they lost the election (by a landslide) they’re going to have to try to brainwash the average reader on the few remaining items that haven’t been crushed by the November 5th results. Good luck with that.

FLOWER POWER SCORE: 10

Based on the information presented in the article, the bureaucrats in Sedona are going to have a tough time trying to negate their written representations to the buyer that the mobile home park was legal for short-term rentals. Maybe next time they should write their certificates of zoning in invisible ink?

BUREAUCRATS GONE WILD RATING: 7

Based on the MIA team’s preliminary research, it appears many homeowners are unable to find full coverage on the standard market for mobile and manufactured homes in certain coastal areas in Maryland,” she said at the start of this week’s hearing. “Our research has also shown that surplus line carriers are beginning to limit their coverage for these homes, for example, by excluding wind coverage, or only writing [policies for] homes that are less than 20 or 25 years old.

The National Flood Insurance Program has created a monster. The result of the National Flood Insurance Act of 1968, it is the primary source of flood insurance coverage for residential properties in the United States. It is a coop of government agencies which issues over five million policies providing over $1.3 trillion in coverage. The program collects in only about $4 billion in annual revenue from policyholders’ premiums and the government funds the rest.

Now think about that for a minute. Those with homes in the flood areas chip in $4 billion against a total exposure of $1.3 trillion. How in the heck is that going to work? Effectively, the U.S. government has allowed people to build homes in flood areas – literally sponsored it – and has an unfunded obligation that is 30% of the nation’s total annual tax revenue. The damage in Hurricane Harvey was $200 billion. Hurricane Helene is thought to be about the same. Hurricane Milton was a bargain at around $50 billion. So let’s see, those $4 billion premiums should catch up on just those three hurricane losses alone in only 112 years, assuming there’s not another hurricane loss for the next century. And there’s no way out of this mess.

BUREAUCRATS GONE WILD RATING: 10

The owners of River Terrace told tenants in July last year that they’d need to move off the property by this past May. The eviction notices caught the park’s roughly 40 year-round residents, many of whom are low-income or seniors, by surprise.

You don’t see a whole lot of articles on Alaskan mobile home parks, but this one’s pretty ridiculous. The owner had already given the residents one year notice to leave the property prior to redevelopment, then the city tied it up in court for a year, and now the city has passed a new rule that states … park owners must give the residents one-year advance notice to close the park. Common sense would say that the owner has already met that threshold, but the crazy bureaucrats have now tacked an additional year on this saga with no compensation for the property owner who did everything right.

BUREAUCRATS GONE WILD RATING: 7

Concerned that the increase was a precursor of things to come under the new owner, tenants in the park initiated a petition drive to establish a rent control ordinance for mobile home parks. Tenants found such an ordinance in use in a town in California and revised it to be OOB-specific. The petition was submitted to the town in August, and was subject to a public hearing before the town council on September 3. The ordinance has been reviewed by the town’s attorney, and found to be acceptable. The council had two choices at the September meeting: approve it that evening, or allow voters to decide the matter in the form of a referendum. The latter was approved on a 4-0 vote.

So Maine apparently wants to be the next California. It makes complete sense that only mobile home parks should have rent control and that the bureaucrats have decided to allow the locals to vote on whether it’s a good idea or not, right? I wonder what would happen if the locals also voted on putting a cap on gas prices, food prices, insurance prices, and even car prices, because that’s the logical next step.

BUREAUCRATS GONE WILD RATING: 10

Elliott suggested that maybe there should be one rate cap for people on Social Security and a higher cap for people who are still working.

Oregon already has rent control. But some mobile home park tenants don’t think it goes far enough. They now want there to be two types of rent control: one for seniors and one for younger people. I know that using the word “socialist” has been worn out this election season, but that’s effectively what we’re talking about here. To quote Wikipedia: ”the goal of socialism is to distribute goods and services equitably”. Basically, it’s the inverse of the free-market capitalist system. If Oregon wants to change from capitalism to socialism, that’s fine I guess, but at least be honest about it.

BUREAUCRATS GONE WILD RATING: 9

Oregon Housing and Community Services, the state's housing agency, will auction off 140 defective modular homes in a series of two-week-long auctions. The state purchased the homes in 2021, with most of them intended to rebuild Royal Oaks Mobile Manor in Phoenix, which was destroyed in the 2020 Almeda Fire. Families who lost their homes in the fire were prioritized for housing. But last summer, the homes were found to be unfit to live in, due to mold, water leaks and other issues. There are unresolved questions about why the homes had defects. Now, OHCS has announced it will auction off the defective homes in an effort to recoup some of the approximately $24 million dollars it says it spent on them.

It is unbelievable that the State of Oregon spent $24 million on 140 mobile homes to begin with – that’s $171,428 per home! But what’s even crazier is that they spent all that money on homes that are so defective they can’t even be used. In the private sector, everyone involved in this would be fired. But my bet is that not one person will be held accountable. Oregon will lose $20 million at auction, and then spend another $24 million on the replacement homes, which means they will then have $300,000 in each mobile home. This type of wasteful spending is what separates the government from the rest of us and is why the average American has zero confidence that their tax dollars are being properly spent.

BUREAUCRATS GONE WILD RATING: 10

Florida is a “red state” in name only. I’m not sure if their goal is to go back to raw farmland, but you can’t go to people that have just had their homes ruined in a hurricane and tell them “sorry but now we’ve changed the rules and you have to spend another $50,000 just to put your $5,000 singlewide back on its lot”. This whole nightmare for Floridians began with the condo building collapse a few years ago followed by the empowerment of bureaucrats to make impossible demands on good-natured people who simply want to retire in peace (the going average is around $100,000 per condo owner for studies and structural refinement). Now Florida is stacking on similar “deal-killing” mandates for single-family and mobile homes. The result is that people are starting to leave the state in droves. I’m not sure what Ron DeSantis is thinking, but I’ve never seen a state so bent on self-destruction. Between the State’s inept attitude, the regular hurricane season and the lack of available insurance, the only thing residing in Florida may eventually be orange trees.

BUREAUCRATS GONE WILD RATING: 10

Electrifying and decarbonizing one home is a step in the right direction. But what if a whole neighborhood had cleaner, more efficient power? 

Sure, you would imagine that – at a time in which Americans have never been more broke – there would be more important items than “decarbonizing” mobile homes (you know, like buying food). Unbelievable that they would not be embarrassed to run this article.

AND THE GUILTY PARTY REALLY IS: WRITERS THAT HAVE LOST TOUCH WITH REALITY.

The city said “no” to building a new mobile home park

This year, residents overwhelmingly voted that down in the August primary, seemingly definitive.

And then the guy wanting to develop it appealed that vote and they voted again:

The appeal was unanimously rejected by the three-person board.

So now the deal is dead. What’s the lesson learned? Nobody – and I mean nobody – who owns property in the United States wants a mobile home park built anywhere near their property. That’s never going to change. And that’s why I’m so negative when people tell me they are going to start a venture to build new parks. It’s simply a futile mission.

AND THE GUILTY PARTY REALLY IS: THE SIMPLE TRUTH THAT THE PRESENCE OF A MOBILE HOME PARK DEPRESSES THE VALUE OF ALL PROPERTIES SURROUNDING IT

According to Kuschel, current residents of the mobile home parks pay around $500 in lot rent, but new residents will now need to pay an increased rent of $895. On top of this, the residents' lot rentals for next year will face a 10% increase.

Let me get this straight: a current tenant who pays $500 per month in lot rent is complaining because all new residents moving in will have to pay $895 per month. That would be like me complaining that I used Hotels.com to get a $100 rate while other people (who I don’t know) are paying full retail for the same room.

The new park owner even pointed this stupidity out:

Over the last few weeks, we’ve notified residents about all our improvement projects, which will result in an average rent increase of $52 that will go into effect on January 1, 2025. New residents moving to Southern Hills will receive landscaping services and be paying a rate that is more in line with the local market.

What’s really going on here? Some random ‘free rent movement” advocate wants to complain about things that are none of their business because, clearly, landlords are inherently evil.

AND THE GUILTY PARTY REALLY IS: LONELY TENANTS WHO WANT THEIR 5 MINUTES OF FAME

The only other option is to build the homes up in some cases 12 feet to make them compliant with the city’s flood ordinance. But given the cost and the layout of the two mobile home communities in town, that’s virtually impossible.

And now you know why Ronald Reagan said the nine scariest words in the English language are “I’m from the government and I’m here to help”.

AND THE GUILTY PARTY REALLY IS: THE CITY OFFICIALS.

Some of Harbor View is still without power and much of the trash is still piled up. “When I first moved here this was a beautiful mobile home park and now we are living like trailer trash. It’s ridiculous. We pay way too much money to this big corporation to not have any consideration,” said Heffelfinger.

This Park was wiped out in Hurricane Helene and the residents are blaming the park owner for that. Good to see that even in a national crisis the “free rent movement” is going strong.

AND THE GUILTY PARTY REALLY IS: HURICANE HELENE

In an effort to keep rent costs low, residents attempted to purchase the parks. When this effort did not work, they began to explore rent control.

And if that doesn’t work, they’re going to slash the park owner’s tires? This has nothing to do with fairness or value but simply the “free rent movement”. These folks simply don’t want to pay rent regardless of what a great deal they’re getting.

AND THE GUILTY PARTY REALLY IS: PEOPLE WHO DON’T WANT TO PAY THEIR RENT BUT INSTEAD WANT A HANDOUT.

Webb said the purpose of the regulations, specifically the 2-acre lot size requirement, was to ensure wastewater and sewer hookups were adequate.

Sure, it makes complete sense that single-family homes are fine on a quarter-acre lot but mobile homes require 2 acres under the new ordinance. And I’m sure that it’s to ensure wastewater hookups are adequate. No way it could be a way to make sure there are no more mobile homes brought into Tupelo, Mississippi, right?

AND THE GUILTY PARTY REALLY IS: THE NEGATIVE STIGMA AGAINST MOBILE HOMES.

Flint can’t even provide safe drinking water but somehow, they view a mobile home park as the most dangerous thing on earth. It would appear the city can’t get the park torn down fast enough – or at least before anyone questions why it can’t just be fixed up. Gee, I wonder why? After all, I thought that cities love affordable housing. That’s what they’re always saying, right?