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Crain's Cleveland Business: From downtown to the suburbs, housing insecurity is a danger to thousands in Northeast Ohio

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Sharena Zayed and her siblings grew up on Cleveland’s East Side in a multi-generational household without a working shower or, at times, hot water.

Their living conditions improved in the late 1990s, when Zayed’s mother obtained a housing choice voucher through a federal program that covers the gap between what a tenant can afford and what a private landlord requires. Still, home never felt like a permanent address.

“It was always dependent on the temperament or stability of the landlord,” said Zayed, a 38-year-old neighborhood organizer. “And it just got worse and worse as time went on.”

When her mother died in early 2022, Zayed’s...

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Our thoughts on this story:

I’m always confused on these articles. The family in the article earns over $80,000 per year. They pay maybe $10,000 in income tax. The kids to go public school. I’m sure the woman’s job includes health insurance. How can they not afford the $2,000 per month rent? Have you ever wondered why the numbers in these stories don’t add up? I guarantee that if you actually tracked their spending on a given month, there’s much more to the story than what’s revealed. But let’s assume for a minute that they really can’t make it happen on $80,000 in the city. Then move 1-hour out of the city to a small town and housing would be cut in half. In addition, they would have a more family-centered environment and probably be much happier. When you remain status quo and whine about it rather than make a move and better your position, it drives me nuts.

WCAX3: New money to help Vermont mobile home parks

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EAST MIDDLEBURY, Vt. (WCAX) - Historic levels of federal funding are bringing help to some of Vermont’s poorest communities by reinvesting in rural infrastructure.

State data shows about 8% of Vermonters live in mobile home parks. These types of homes accounted for 40% of property damage during Tropical Storm Irene. A plan from the state would invest in rural water and sewer that will improve the lives of mobile home residents.

Communities like Middlebury have long had investments and resources for infrastructure, getting the attention of lawmakers in Montpelier. But rural communities like East Middlebury just next door have long been...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Vermont working on a mobile home initiative is as whacky as Kansas working on a surfboard initiative. There are fewer mobile home parks in the entire state of Vermont than there are in a typical Missouri metro. Just a bunch of virtue-signaling and nothing more.

Williams-Grand Canyon News: Workforce housing project in Cottonwood to begin renting in July

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COTTONWOOD, Ariz. — Some of the highly-anticipated Inspiration Apartments should be ready to rent next month.

Yavapai College will rent 10 of the apartments for its workforce and has partnered with the developer, Fain Signature Group, to produce attainable housing options for the Yavapai County workforce.

But the ribbon cutting for the 192 apartments will be bittersweet for local housing officials because they know the project will only put a small dent in the housing demand in the Verde Valley

The Inspiration Apartments’ Phase 1 certificate of occupancy, “if we don’t have any more delays of materials, is July,” explained Guy Roginson of...

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Our thoughts on this story:

"The apartments, which are being built across from the entrance of the Verde Valley Medical Center on State Route 89A, start at $1,575 for a one-bedroom and go up to $2,235 for a three-bedroom, according to its website."


Wait a minute – that’s affordable? Then how can you criticize mobile home parks which offer 3 bedrooms for $995 per month including lot rent? Total hypocrisy!

Storm Lake Times Pilot: Alta City Council changes position on new mobile homes

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The Alta City Council allowed a trailer to move into Westview Mobile Home Park, an about-face from a longstanding precedent that outlawed new trailers from moving in.

The council declined to render a decision on a request from Westview Manager Kenny Bishop and Code Enforcement Officer John Stange to move a trailer from Northside Trailer Park to Westview. The five council members and Mayor Kevin Walsh deferred the decision to Stange and Fire Chief Kirk Reetz. Stange will determine whether the trailer qualifies for a moving permit; Reetz will determine whether the trailer’s new location will meet the city’s fire code.

“I’d like to see...

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Our thoughts on this story:

"Henderson was on the city council when Councilman Lee Meyer said the council should explore condemning the property, but she offered no opinion on Meyer’s comments. “I had people coming and tell me that you want to close down the trailer park,” Lane said to Henderson. Henderson denied Lane’s claims without explanation."

Come on, nobody can be this stupid. Clearly the city wants the park gone because it’s ugly and offers little in property tax. The greatest B.S. in the world can’t distract from this fact.

JOLT: Olympia committee reviews additional RV parking spaces at Coach Post Mobile Park

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The Olympia Site Plan Review Committee held a presubmission conference on Wednesday on a proposal to add 14 new RV parking spaces to the existing Coach Post Mobile Park at 3633 7th Avenue SW.

Project applicant Bryce Hanson asked the committee to modify the previous proposal to expand the existing mobile home park by 15 spaces.

Hanson is proposing to provide 14 new RV park spaces within the existing Coach Post Mobile Home Park, which currently has 54 spaces.

In the narrative, the applicant stated there would be no improvements to the mobile home park other than installing sewage-holding tanks for the 14 RV park spaces.

Olympia has no...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Getting approvals to expand RV parks are so much easier than mobile home parks as most Americans have a positive stigma of RVs and a negative one towards mobile homes. It’s interesting tha the #1 assertion of the city to get the permit is that no customer can stay more than 180 days – they want to make sure that this in no way resembles a mobile home park. 

azcentral: Resident of GCU mobile home park in Phoenix says university is demanding silence in exchange for help

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One outspoken resident of a mobile home park that is owned and being redeveloped by Grand Canyon University says the university is trying to silence her in exchange for compensation.

Alondra Ruiz has lived at Periwinkle mobile home park for nine years and has been a central voice at protests and City Council meetings about the park’s closure. She said attorneys for the university asked her to sign a contract with a “non-disparagement” clause that would prohibit her from saying anything negative about GCU or Trellis, the housing nonprofit GCU hired to help residents relocate.

If Ruiz doesn’t sign the contract, she said she will not receive...

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Our thoughts on this story:

This quote shows how stupid this story is:

"Alondra Ruiz has lived at Periwinkle mobile home park for nine years and has been a central voice at protests and City Council meetings about the park’s closure. She said attorneys for the university asked her to sign a contract with a “non-disparagement” clause that would prohibit her from saying anything negative about GCU or Trellis, the housing nonprofit GCU hired to help residents relocate.If Ruiz doesn’t sign the contract, she said she will not receive the compensation package GCU is offering her, including $10,000."

It's standard business in the U.S. to get release clauses signed when you get paid. Either stop blasting GCU and take the money or get nothing. The resident has no power here and the journalist is giving her false hope. This park closed in May – by the book – and Ruiz and others have no apparent legal basis to still be living there. Grand Canyon University is trying to stop this PR nightmare and have bent over backwards. Their patience is at an end, and I don’t blame them.

Nebraska Examiner: Upset mobile home owners seek reprieve from federal agency’s order to move out

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LINCOLN — Seventeen years ago, Bill Roddy found a little piece of paradise along a quiet reservoir in southwest Nebraska.

Roddy, then living in the Denver area, purchased a mobile home that was for sale on leased land that sits along Swanson Reservoir, a 5,000-acre fishing and recreation lake near Trenton.

Soon, Roddy was a part of a “big family” of 110 mobile home owners, joining boat and golf cart “parades,” a “prom night” party held at the local marina and even pitching in to help a local business clean up storm damage.

“It’s Colorado people, Nebraska folks, it’s Kansas folks, some locals … it’s just a great community,” he said. “It’s...

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Our thoughts on this story:

“We’re just beyond ourselves about why the Bureau of Reclamation wants to kick us out,” said a resident. Seriously? The story concedes that the park brings in only $30,000 or tax revenue. They are talking about building $10 million of property improvements on this land. That’s an annual tax bill of around $200,000. By giving the green light, the tax authority ends up $170,000 per year richer. And you don’t get that logic? Give me a break.

The Islander Classifieds: Bradenton Beach official gives insight on Pines Trailer Park future

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Some six months after an announcement the owners of the Pines Trailer Park land plan to sell, Bradenton Beach City Hall has yet to receive any inquiries about development options.

But there is speculation among Pines residents and neighbors.

Bradenton Beach building official Steve Gilbert spoke with The Islander June 7 about the process that would be involved in the possible redevelopment of the park.

And he said no one had yet inquired at city hall about the property or the requirements to change the use of the trailer park land.

The owner of the park, the Jackson Partnership, informed the residents Jan. 25 that it intended to sell the...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Let me get this straight: somebody is buying 2.78 acres for $16.25 million and nobody knows if it’s going to stay a park or not? Not to offend those without math skills, but that’s over $5 million per acre. There’s no mobile home park in the U.S. that can support $5 million per acre outside of Malibu (and even that is sketchy). So clearly, yes, this site will be redeveloped. When the city official says “to change anything over from what it is now, would require a comprehensive plan map change. It would require rezoning. It would require major development application review hearings. You would probably be looking at a two- to three-year process to get it done” he is just trying to confuse the journalist since that timetable is true of all development, not just conversion of a mobile home park to another use. And do you think even one neighbor will speak against tearing down the trailer park to make way for the fancy new hotel? I mean, this thing is next to a boat marina. Give me a break here.

Daily Commercial News: Parkbridge JV launches new land lease ‘attainable’ homes model

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arkbridge Lifestyle Communities has announced a new community partnership with Mattamy Homes that takes Parkbridge’s land lease homes model into the housing mainstream, marketed as “attainable” low-cost residences.

The developer and owner of more than 50 residential land lease communities and 30 recreational resort communities across the country, Parkbridge has until now targeted mainly the seniors market but with its latest move it will now sell land lease housing suitable for purchase as starter homes in mixed-use residential communities.

The new Lakehaven community, with more than 2,000 homes slated to be built in Innisfil, Ont. near...

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Our thoughts on this story:

“Everyone talks about the missing middle. This is part of what a solution to the missing middle looks like, 1,500- to 1800-square-foot homes with a price of under $500,000 for a base unit,” said Malcolmson."

I know Canadians are richer than Americans on average (nearly twice as rich) but $500,000 is considered “affordable” housing and does not even include the land, which is leased? Wow. I need to open a Louis Vuitton store there.

Longmont Leader: Polis Administration, DOLA announce funding for Mobile Home Park Resident Empowerment Program

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Governor Polis and the Colorado Department of Local Affairs (DOLA) announced that DOLA’s Division of Housing (DOH), Office of Housing Finance and Sustainability (OHFS) granted more than $28 million to three loan program administrators for the Mobile Home Park Resident Empowerment Program (MHPREP). 

“This important support helps residents purchase the land their homes are on, and we are excited to continue the important work to make sure Coloradans have access to safe and affordable housing,” said Gov. Polis. 

SB22-160 establishes a revolving loan and grant program to provide assistance and financing to mobile home owners seeking to...

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Our thoughts on this story:

I’m all for these type of programs – we have sold several parks to the residents so far – but can we all admit how few properties this benefits in the end? Residents in the entire U.S. only buy about 20 or 30 parks a year. Wouldn’t this money be better served if every mobile home park got a grant to build a pavilion, charcoal grills, playground, and nicer entrance? That would benefit ten times more people for the same money. I’m not sure what this obsession is with the residents buying the land underneath their mobile homes, but it does nothing to stop rents from increasing, if that’s the myth that people are counting on. I don’t have any stats, but I know of parks that have significantly higher rents under resident-owned scenarios as they then have to contend with covering the rising costs of everything from insurance to property tax, as well as try to pay a crushing monthly mortgage.

The Islander: Mum is the word on pending Pines trailer park sale

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Despite news of a pending sale for the Pines Trailer Park at the bay end of Bridge Street in Bradenton Beach, residents and parties privy to the sale have little to say.

Homeowners in the mobile home park, 103 Church Ave., received notice May 8 of an offer from an unknown entity to purchase the park land.

The notice, prepared by attorney David A. Luczak, representing the Pines owners — the Jackson Partnership — said the partnership was considering the offer of $16,250,000 for all park-owned land, mobile homes, recreational vehicles, equipment, materials, vehicles and buildings.

The offer included an initial nonrefundable deposit of $1...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Yes, I believe this is the same park that the tenants had first option to buy for $16,250,000 with $1 million non-refundable and they were only able to raise only around $4,000 by the date to exercise their option. Now these same tenants are miffed that the owner is not giving them updates on the REAL buyer and the date of closing. Why should they? The tenants had their shot and blew it. Why would anyone think the seller owes them any further courtesies which, no doubt, they will only use to try and derail the legitimate and lawful sale further? 

M Live: Wallet Watch: Hedge fund ‘like a shadow’ buying Michigan mobile home parks

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A hedge fund has found a new venture: mobile home parks.

Mobile homeowners across Michigan say rents jumped, maintenance declined and it became nearly impossible to move after their communities came under new ownership. Each park has been purchased by a different LLC, but breadcrumbs trail back to a $1 billion New York-based hedge fund called Alden Global Capital.

Suzanne Clevenger, 64, says conditions have worsened at River Springs Estates since she moved into a doublewide with her husband seven years ago. A flood devastated the Berrien Springs park in 2018. And now she says broken pipes have been a problem for two years – sewage...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Let’s break this article down into components:

  1. The residents claim that a $390 per month lot rent in Hastings, Michigan is “insanely high”. A quick trip to Bestplaces.net proves out that the median home price in Hastings is $281,400 and the average three-bedroom apartment rent is $1,530 per month. Therefore, clearly, the tenants’ claim is BOGUS.
  2. The tenants claim that the rent has gone up since the private equity group bought the property. TRUE. And that the quality of the maintenance has declined. BOGUS. They have no examples of this supposed “decline” in maintenance of the property, but I know from experience that a private equity group ALWAYS runs the park they buy better than mom and pop did. 
  3. The writer claims that private equity groups are destroying the wonderful quality of Michigan mobile home parks. BOGUS. These groups are, in fact, the only pioneers bringing these old parks back to life.
  4. As with what we see every week, new owners raise rents and fix up parks and marginal tenants (maybe 1%) are willing to live in total squalor rather than pay $100 per month more. Nobody agrees with this philosophy except this strange tiny slice of the tenant pie. BOGUS.

Can AI PLEASE hurry up and put all these woke journalists out of their jobs? Any computer would instinctively know that there are two sides to every story – not just the one expressed by a few hoarder tenants.

The Daily World: Aberdeen considering rent notice rule for mobile home parks

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As residents of a mobile home park in South Aberdeen continue to push for regulation of rising rents, the Aberdeen City Council last week considered an ordinance that would extend the notification period for rent increases.

As it reads now, though, the ordinance — which would require a six-month advance notification for rent increases greater than 5% in mobile home parks — could be dipping into areas of landlord and tenant protections already regulated by the state, potentially setting the city up for litigation, according to the city’s legal counsel.

That prospect caused the city council to table the ordinance in search of a more solid...

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Our thoughts on this story:

This story is so ridiculous. Let’s break it down into each dumb piece:

  1. The tenants say that $635 per month for lot rent is ridiculously high. I’m sorry but a quick search on Bestplaces.net shows the median home price to be over $300,000. STUPID.
  2. The city of Aberdeen wants to increase the notice period for rent increases to 180 days, in complete contradiction to state law and certain to be overturned in court without ever taking effect. STUPID.

So what’s really going on here? A few of the tenants obviously are going down and yelling at city officials who want them to get out of their hair so they are proposing a law that they know has no chance of sticking just so those few tenants will stop coming to their offices and wasting their time. Classic move.
I think I’ve seen this movie before – wasn’t it called Joe Biden and the evictions moratorium that the Supreme Court threw out the window but placated AOC and “the squad” for a brief while?

Arizona's Family: Residents of Mesa mobile home park asked to leave within several months

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MESA, AZ (3TV/CBS 5) -- Residents at Primrose Estates in Mesa were given notices this week saying the land the mobile home park is on could be used for something else in the future. The notice states that people have 180 days to find another place to live. However, the letter didn’t give an exact date on when people needed to be moved out by. “There’s people in here with no place to go, older people, and handicapped people,” Ron Hennemann said. “I’ll land on my feet. I always do, but I’m worried about them.”

Hennemann has lived in Primrose Estates for over ten years but says they’ve had major septic issues for the past three years....

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Our thoughts on this story:

Now Primrose Estates of Mesa, Arizona joins the growing list of parks being torn down to make way for more profitable uses. How could this have been avoided. HIGHER LOT RENTS. This is not rocket science.

Planetizen: In Spite of Affordability Crisis, Richmond Rejects Manufactured Housing Plan

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A proposed manufactured housing project was denied a permit in Richmond, Virginia, despite a growing housing crisis in that city, one so severe it was officially recognized by the city council just two weeks prior to the project’s rejection. 

As Wyatt Gordon explains in Greater Greater Washington, “Beyond the details of the drama between 9th District Councilmember Mike Jones — a rising star in the commonwealth’s Democratic Party — and one of Richmond’s premier housing nonprofits, the impasse boiled down to whether a warehouse should be sited next to single-family housing. The lot Project:HOMES hoped to turn into a production facility for...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Sure, who wouldn’t want to have a mobile home manufacturing plant built next to their single-family home on land zoned residential? Who could possibly be mad at having their property value fall by 50%+, have constant noise, and have zero liquidity on re-sale? I guarantee that if the mayor was that property owner this would never have made it to a vote.

Insider: A buyer shelled out $145,000 for a retro mobile home in California with rumored ties to 'I Love Lucy' — see inside

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"Lucy, I'm home!"

A mobile home in Palm Springs, California, that is now a delightful one-bedroom home, but is rumored to have been Desi Arnaz's makeup trailer for "I Love Lucy," sold in May for $145,000.

The petite closing price actually works out to quite a large price per square foot — especially considering it's just the trailer its new owner purchased and not the land underneath it.

In Palm Springs — home of natural hot springs and celebrity getaways — the median listing home price per square foot is $501. That's more than double the national average of $222, according to Realtor.com.

But in Horizon Mobile Village & RV Park at the...

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Our thoughts on this story:

The person who did this remodel actually did a pretty good job. But anyone who would pay $145,000 for a tiny RV that formerly served as Desi Arnaz’ makeup trailer is nuts. If you’re looking for a cool home in California, you could have taken that $145,000 and bought a 100’ wooden yacht that the engines are missing on and moor it in a nice harbor or marina and wear a yachting hat and ascot. I know someone who did that – in Catalina harbor no less – and that’s way smarter than this trailer concept.

The Daily Record: Wooster council approves 'broad' regulations for manufactured homes citing health, safety

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WOOSTER ― The city now has the authority to enforce maintenance code violations on manufactured homes following a 6-1 Wooster City Council vote Monday.

This vote came after a back-and-forth discussion about how the city authority will be applied without stepping on the toes of federal and state agencies, each of which regulate specific aspects of manufactured homes.

Changes:Wooster council OKs expansion of manufactured homes in existing mobile home parks

The legislation applies as many housing regulations to the prefabricated dwellings as possible, said John Scavelli, city law director.

The goal, he said, is to see how a city can best...

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Our thoughts on this story:

At least one bureaucrat got it right : “only Councilman Scott Myers voted no, citing the broad nature of the provisions and the potential of government overreach”. Once again the city is passing a law that they acknowledge does not align with state law, and will then be tossed out in litigation. Does this seem like a trend to you?

Iowa Capital Dispatch: How Minnesota will spend $1 billion on housing

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Minnesota lawmakers increased the state’s spending on housing about ninefold over the next two years, mostly with one-time funding paid for with part of the $17.5 billion surplus.

The $1 billion in new funding (HF2335) will help developers build more affordable apartments, help low- and moderate-income Minnesotans buy their first homes, and provide rental assistance to thousands of households.

Lawmakers also created the first dedicated funding source for housing through a new quarter-cent sales tax in the seven-county Twin Cities metropolitan area. That tax is estimated to raise about $300 million over the next two years, with the...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Spending money putting more people on the dole is not going to do anything but delay the inevitable until those funds run out. Apartment Section 8 programs are not sustainable and never were. If you really want to solve affordable housing the key is to come up with a single-family home that can be built incredibly cheaply (think 3-D printing) and then the state/county/city provides the land and infrastructure for free. It’s a one-time cost and the tenant can last forever with a debt-free cheap house that requires no further subsidy. Why is this not already occurring? Because the single-family and multi-family housing lobbies will never let it happen and they have every bureaucrat in the nation on their payroll in some manner.

Michigan Radio: Under hedge fund ownership, Michigan mobile home parks' rents spike while maintenance lags

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Sudden rent increases. Maintenance jobs ignored. And eviction notices that catch tenants by surprise.

People living in mobile home parks across Michigan say those issues have become commonplace since a secretive hedge fund bought up their parks.

Rose White is a reporter with MLive who's been investigating the tenants concerns. She spoke with Michigan Radio Morning Edition host Doug Tribou.

Doug Tribou: You spoke to a lot of residents of these mobile home parks. What are some of their main complaints?

Rose White: One of the main ones is big rent increases. Some of them are seeing their rents go up $130 at a time. And a lot of homeowners...

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Our thoughts on this story:

This woke journalist contends that private equity groups buying mobile home parks are “vulture capitalists” ... “an investor who buys up distressed companies and makes a profit by aggressively cutting costs or selling the business for parts”. Let’s try and put some common sense to this statement:

  1. Yes, private equity groups raise rents because they’re ridiculously low and not supported by market forces. If the apartments are $1,200 per month, then lot rents don’t need to be $350 per month but rather $1,000+ per month to align with supply and demand. These groups are being nice simply raising rents in more moderate amounts, even when it’s 100% legal to go up in larger increments.
  2. No, private equities make zero money cutting costs. What’s there to cut? Can’t shut off utilities, stop paying property taxes or drop the insurance. Can the writer please elaborate and give a single example?
  3. How do you sell a mobile home park for parts? Sell off the power poles to a logging company? Again, this is a stupid comment that is not based on fact and the writer gives no examples at all.

Did you notice this week that there’s a plethora of similar articles about “evil private equity groups”. I’ve seen this before. A few years ago a single associate professor in Colorado bragged that they had been able to cause 40 different media groups to publish their personal grudge that mobile home park owners are evil. Lurking in the background is some new person or group that is trying to do the same.

ABC6: Neighbors band together to fight repeated rent hikes in their community

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LANCASTER, Ohio (WSYX) — Tenants of a mobile home park in Lancaster are protesting what they call repeated rent hikes in their community. Thursday afternoon, they held signs outside of Colonial Estates Mobile Home Park's main office calling for rent control and pleading not to force seniors out.

Twelve-year residents Dan Wynkle and his wife started a tenants' organization that they registered with the state to fight another $30 lot rent increase. He said housing costs eat up more that the $2,100 they bring in per month.

According to the Fairfield County auditor's website, an out-of-state investor from California bought the trailer park in...

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Our thoughts on this story:

There is no rent control in Ohio and this story is based on the false narrative that somehow a few mobile home park tenants can magically change state law. And if that happened, parks like this one would simply be torn down and made into more profitable uses. However, there is definitely a problem when senior residents can’t afford to allocate more money for lot rent, which is always going up (along with every other thing in America today). So the real issue is how you subsidize the seniors if that’s what society wants to do. If the city/county/state wants to start paying a portion of the lot rent to the property owner, then I’m sure they’d be fine with that. But we all know that’s not going to happen and what’s really going on is that society is trying to make mobile home park owners subsidize tenants and effectively become their own personal Section 8. That’s all these stories basically amount to. And it’s extremely annoying that mobile home park owners should be placed in that position when apartment owners simply receive subsidies through Section 8. If the government doesn’t want to do its job with subsidies, then that should be the end of it. Either put up or shut up. 

Cape Gazette: Construction underway in Donovan Smith Manufactured Home Park

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Following less-than-ideal construction conditions to start the week of May 30, work to provide some Lewes residents with sanitary services has begun.

Teal Construction has started assembling sanitary pipes in a staging area for the Delaware Clean Water Initiative’s pilot program, the Donovan Smith Manufactured Home Park Sewer and Water Extension Project. The Dover-based company started the piping connections June 1.

George, Miles and Buhr engineer Duane Hoffman, GMB’s project representative, said crews will assemble the piping in the staging area prior to delivering it to Donovans Road to minimize unnecessary lane closures. Hoffman said...

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Our thoughts on this story:

There’s little description of what the “Dover” program is, but if it replaces aging sewer lines in parks at no cost to the owner then I’m all for it. These are the types of initiatives that would save many mom & pop parks from the wrecking ball.

Longmont Leader: Former mobile home park will one day be affordable housing

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The Longmont housing department plans later this month to use American Rescue Plan Act funds to eventually turn the former Royal Mobile Home Park into affordable housing.

The property at 133 S. Coffman St. is currently owned by Longmont Public Works. In this proposed deal, the city’s Housing and Community Investment department plans to use ARPA funds to purchase the property for $2.1 million by the end of this month.

According to a city memo, the September 2013 flood caused severe destruction to the 56 mobile homes at the former Royal Mobile Home Park on the north bank of St. Vrain Creek, just west of Main Street.

Using disaster...

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Our thoughts on this story:

You’ve got to love these bureaucrats. They are tearing down a mobile home park and turning it into apartments and then disguising this as being OK because the apartments will be “affordable”. Of course, the apartments will only be “affordable” with government subsidies like Section 8. And they were able to escape the wrath of the media by saying “there’s really no difference between non-subsidized mobile home parks and subsidized apartments – it’s all just one big affordable housing family” which is clearly not true. 

Carteret County News Times: Peletier schedules public hearings on rezoning requests for park model homes, tiny houses

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PELETIER — Park model homes, and to a lesser degree, tiny homes, are catching on fast in western Carteret County, with major projects in planning stages.

Monday night, Peletier commissioners scheduled public hearings next month on two smaller ones.

The board met in the town hall off Highway 58.

Jonathan Wrightson, who owns property along Bucks Corner Road, which runs between Highway 58 and Whitehouse Fork Road, has submitted rezoning requests for five separate lots along the street.

He wants to rezone 187, 191 and 199 Bucks Corner Road from B-1 (business) and rezone 175 and 169 Bucks Corner from residential to mobile campers.

All of the...

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Our thoughts on this story:

There’s clearly a disconnect here. The mobile home park owner says he wants to bring in tiny homes to replace run-down trailers, and the city says it’s going to start sending out citations and fines for run-down trailers. I see absolutely nothing in this article even remotely suggesting that the city is actually going to give this guy a variance to bring in tiny homes on HUD-licensed lots. All that’s going on, in my opinion, is the city is declaring war on the old trailers and after they get them removed is going to deny the tiny home dream and, as a result, reduce the occupancy at the park.

Caller Times: Debate likely in zoning request that would put low-cost housing in air traffic safety zone

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Potential developers of a proposed manufactured housing subdivision are billing the project as an opportunity to deliver as many as 500 affordable homes to Corpus Christi – but, according to city officials, a portion of the property could raise significant safety questions.

The project, as planned, would make available new three-bedroom, two-bath manufactured homes for roughly $85,000 under current pricing, said developer Robert Murray.

“It’s basically your new affordable housing,” Murray said.

If a rezoning request is approved, as many as 500 lots could be developed under a phased approach on the 95-acre property off Old Brownsville...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Ok, give me a break. Corpus Christi is NOT trying to scuttle the proposed mobile home park zoning because of concerns over a plane crashing into it. That’s just the best excuse they could come up right now.

3TV/CBS 5: Yavapai College combatting housing crisis with RV park, tiny homes

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If you build it, they will come. That’s the thinking behind the Yavapai College district’s creative idea to attract more employees and students. “Something like this can make a huge difference,” said Dr. Clint Ewell, the VP of Finance and Administration.

The college will be offering tiny homes and an RV park at some of its campuses where an affordable housing shortage is felt. “We’ve noticed that our recruiting pools have been getting smaller, and we believe it’s because of the high cost of living here in Yavapai County. We’re currently at about 20% above the national average,” said Dr. Ewell.

The college is hopeful a 200 sq. ft. houses...

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Our thoughts on this story:

This is actually not a bad idea. The U.S. government built mobile home parks (then RV parks by definition) at colleges across America to house the G.I. Bill folks. But then the article says the college plan is to build only three tiny homes a year. That’s a pretty small number – hardly worth the article to begin with.