Mobile Home Park News Briefing

Purchase is fourth to take place since passage of nation-leading mobile homeowner protections signed into law by Governor Mills 

Jay, MAINE – Governor Janet Mills tonight joined the residents of the Hidden Circle Mobile Home Park in Jay to celebrate their purchase of the mobile home park, which will ensure the land beneath their 31 homes will remain locally owned and affordable. 

In most cases, residents of mobile home parks own their home and pay rent for the lot on which their home sits. In recent years, investors have purchased mobile home parks across Maine and the nation, frequently raising lot fees to increase profits.

In 2023,...

The Maine Office of Community Affairs has released a cache of data about the state’s mobile home parks that advocates say will be crucial in ongoing efforts to protect residents against the out-of-state private equity firms that have been snapping up parks and dramatically raising lot rents.

Historically, data surrounding mobile homes has been almost nonexistent. 

The Maine Manufactured Housing Board, which oversaw mobile home licensing and inspections until this year, tracked the number of licensed parks (475), but that’s about it. 

Legislators, regulators, state officials and park residents have been kept in the dark about the number of...

Yountville's town council spent part of yesterday's meeting weighing whether to cap rent increases at the town's two mobile home parks, ultimately sending the question back to staff instead of approving any ordinance. Residents of Bella Vista Mobile Home Park and Rancho de Napa, many of them fixed-income seniors, pressed the council to act before rising space rents force them out of homes they already own outright. No formal rent rules were adopted at the meeting, though the debate exposed a sharp divide between residents and at least one park representative.

According to the Napa Valley Register, the council directed town staff to gather...

Belmont manufactured housing residents suffered a legal defeat this week when a New Hampshire judge tossed out their lawsuit accusing an out-of-state investor of dissuading them from buying their park with his false promises of stable rent increases.

In 2021, Bradley Pereira, manager of Oakshire Capital, purchased the 5.8-acre Great Brook Village, a manufactured housing community in Belmont for residents aged 55 and older.

Before the sale, the park’s previous owner notified residents of his intent to sell the property, allowing them to organize and purchase the community themselves.

Residents began pursuing a purchase of the park but...

WASHINGTON, D.C. — Brookfield Asset Management has disclosed that it deployed its first investment for its Breva H housing strategy into YES! Communities, one of the nation’s largest owners of manufactured housing communities with almost 300 parks and over 80,000 home sites in 23 states.

The investment significantly expands Brookfield’s presence in one of America’s most important sources of affordable housing while raising new questions about protections for manufactured housing residents. 

Brookfield’s acquisition comes at a time when Congress has taken its first major step toward addressing corporate ownership of housing through the...

BRADENTON BEACH – Representatives of the Pines Park Investors LLC ownership group introduced their proposed conceptual plan to redevelop the Pines Trailer Park property at the east end of Bridge Street. 

The plans also propose redeveloping multiple properties at the west end of Bridge Street, near the Gulf Drive intersection. 

The conceptual plans and renderings were presented to the mayor, city commissioners and the public during the Aug. 6 city commission meeting. The presentation was given for informational purposes only. The commission took no action and the mayor did not open the discussion up for public comment. 

The plans propose...

BRADENTON BEACH, Fla. (WWSB) - The future of the Pines Mobile Home Park, a nearly three-acre parcel off the Gulf on Bradenton Beach, is under discussion after the property was closed following damage from Hurricane Helene in 2024.

The landowner is planning the site’s future, and a City Hall meeting is expected to draw significant public comment on the project.

Documents submitted to public record show the vision for the property includes shopping, dining, and recreational space. Some homes on the site remain damaged, a visible reminder of the storms that led to the park’s closure.

Residents of Bradenton Beach have expressed concern about...

When San Lazaro Mobile Home Park was listed for sale this spring, residents organized an effort to buy it themselves. They feared that a new owner could sharply increase rents, displace families or redevelop the property, dismantling a community that has existed for decades. 

Now, that effort has taken on greater urgency. 

On Aug. 10, residents were notified that an undisclosed buyer had offered the full asking price of $42.5 million, according to members of the residents’ group organizing the purchase. Boulder Reporting Lab was unable to determine who made the offer. David Eisenstein, an attorney for the park’s current owner, said the...

WOODSTOCK, Ga. — A proposed redevelopment that could result in the displacement of roughly 130 families from their homes in Woodstock is heading to a final vote before the Woodstock City Council on August 24.

The Woodstock Planning Commission voted Thursday to recommend annexation and rezoning of the Ansley Park mobile home park at 200 Dupree Road and 681 Stonebridge Parkway, moving the project one step closer to approval. The commission did reject the developer's request for several zoning variances tied to the project's design.

The park's owner is retiring and plans to close the property, opening the door for redevelopment. Weekley...

Residents of the Hidden Circle Mobile Home Park in Jay purchased its manufactured home community last week for $1 million, ensuring the land beneath 31 homes in Jay can remain locally owned and affordable for years to come.

“It hasn’t been an easy process, but we never gave up,” said Travis, a resident of Hidden Circle Mobile Home Park and president of the cooperative’s volunteer board. “We had to purchase the park because the alternative could be worse. Someone could come in here and hike up the rents and eventually push people out of their homes. Now, people can feel financially safe and safe in their homes.”

The Hidden Circle residents...

WOODSTOCK, Ga. — Ansley Park mobile home park opened decades ago on Dupree Road and 681 Stonebridge Parkway in Cherokee County.

Thursday night, the Woodstock Planning Commission voted to recommend the annexation and rezoning of the 31-acre property.

The owner has retired and wants to sell the land to a developer who plans to build 220 single-family homes.

“We are in the middle of an affordability crisis, a housing crisis, and an employment crisis,” neighbor Axel Vera said to Channel 2’s Tom Regan.

Vera knows family and friends who live in the mobile home park and will struggle to find affordable rent in the area.

“People have...

DELMONT, Pa. — Channel 11 received several letters from people who live in a 55-and-over community known as Cloverleaf Estates East in Delmont. Most neighbors are on a fixed income there and told Channel 11 they got a notification that their land rent is increasing by 24%. Now, they are faced with having to move.

“When we moved here, we are told that the increase is minimal each year. Minimal is 4 or 8%…it’s not 24%,” said Joan Stuchul, who lives in Cloverleaf East. “We are senior citizens! We can’t go out and get a job and make up $150, or $170 a month. We can’t do that. We are stuck.”

Cloverleaf Estates sent a letter to residents saying...

A California-based mobile home park investment firm facing lawsuits and government scrutiny in multiple states settled a zoning dispute with the city of Temple by selling a mobile home park to the city for $1.432 million.

The taxpayer-funded purchase will displace residents.

The dispute began after Santa Fe Trails MHP LLC sought permits to place homes on vacant lots within the Santa Fe Trails mobile home park.

City officials argued the additions would unlawfully expand a legal nonconforming use in a light industrial zone. The owner disagreed, sued the city and several officials, and later reached a mediated agreement that included...

BRADENTON BEACH – During the Thursday, Aug. 6, city commission meeting, the Pines Trailer Park ownership group, Pines Park Investors LLC, is expected to reveal its intended future use of the waterfront mobile home park property. 

The public meeting will be held at city hall and the meeting will start at 6 p.m. The Pines presentation is listed on the agenda as, “Pines Park Investors LLC – Bridge Street pier district: conceptual architectural presentation and project overview.” The agenda packet contains no plans or renderings for the intended use of the property. Public comment will be allowed during the meeting. 

PARK OWNERSHIP

According...

AUGUSTA –– Joe Hupperich had a busy day in Augusta Monday. 

He was canvassing residents on behalf of the Maine Labor Climate Council, looking to get the rest of the 2,000 signatures he needs for a citizens’ initiative this fall. He wants to see a new ordinance on the books regulating rents for local mobile home park residents.

Augusta is just one of the latest communities to jump on the bandwagon of enacting local ordinances to help keep rents from going too high, too fast.

“It’s the kind of thing we need to organize around, whether it’s union members, whether it’s community members, or whether it’s society as a whole, we can’t let people...

PORTLAND (WGME) -- Residents of a southern Maine mobile home park are taking their fight to court.

They want a judge to undo the sale of Shady Oaks in Arundel, claiming they were denied their right under Maine law to make an offer to buy the park themselves.

People who live at Shady Oaks are suing the park's former owners and its current owner. They say each violated Maine's fair trade law during the sale and ownership transfer of the mobile home park last year. While that's the legal basis of the lawsuit, residents say it stems from years of growing frustration.

“We're just money for them, that's all it is,” Shady Oaks resident Jodi...

mobile home park on the city’s south side, owned and operated by a local family for many years, has been sold for $26 million.

Desert Classic Mobile Home Park is a 275-space mobile home community at 5250 S. Campbell Ave.

It was purchased by California-based Pacifica Companies.

“This currently and historically well-occupied property sold for the first time after a long period of multi-generational ownership,” said Dustin B. Wilmer of The Wilmer & Danny Group of Marcus & Millichap, which handled the sale, along with John Sheedy of Park Brokerage and Ryan Sarbinoff with Marcus & Millichap. “The sellers received multiple highly...

Mobile home residents say San Jose is shutting them out of discussions regarding a proposed increase on space rent that could affect one of the city’s last affordable housing options.

In January, the San Jose City Council voted to delay a 10% space rent increase whenever a mobile home is sold after it was revealed the housing director was communicating exclusively with a representative of mobile home park owners on the proposed policy before it was publicized. The council directed the Housing Department to engage in community meetings with residents and park owners to develop a mutual agreement, and return back to council in the...

Aberdeen officials have condemned Green Acres mobile home park with demolition to begin in the days to come. That's according...

Maine is in the process of adjusting how it regulates the manufactured housing industry and helps support residents of mobile home parks. The changes come as a growing number of communities across the state have been purchased by out-of-state investors and follow a report that found deficiencies in the state’s ability to respond to complaints.

The Maine Manufactured Housing Board, which has been responsible for upholding mobile home park community standards and manufacturing quality for almost 50 years, had its last meeting in early June and was dissolved on July 29. Its four-person staff has been moved out of the Department of...

ROYERSFORD, Pa. ― Moving boxes were still stacked throughout the tidy, black-shuttered home that Dennis and Susan Johnson had bought in Montgomery County when a landscaper alerted them that their lot rent was about to go through the roof. 

The couple had spent three years scouring the housing market for the right combination of affordability and proximity to their children and grandchildren. After looking at an array of condominiums and single-family homes, they concluded the best option was to buy a Mount Airy manufactured home in a 55-plus community called Village of Willow Run.

Though the house is theirs, the dirt beneath it is not,...

Residents of Butler Town Road are expected to turn out in large numbers Tuesday as the planning board considers approval of a request for a mobile home park.

Tuesday’s meeting is set for 6:30 at the county office building on Webster Street in Whiteville. The meeting has been delayed at least once.

The proposed Boggy Branch mobile home park would have lots for 13 homes on a property that is currently used for agriculture.

Amber Leonard lives near where the proposed park would be located, and she said neighbors have major concerns about everything from wastewater to drainage. Much of the area already floods during heavy rains, she said, and...

A drive through the Westmoor Mobile Home Park in southwest Oklahoma City paints a picture of a quaint community. The grass is cut to a neat level, the trees bloom and the mobile homes are decorated and maintained.

At the park’s center is a playground, a pool, a basketball court and a field with two adjacent soccer goals.

Dustin Rollins, a trailer park resident, said that when he was searching for a property, Westmoor’s amenities and cleanliness were reasons he and his family moved in.

But Rollins said he later learned that was only the surface.

The Westmoor Mobile Home Park is a serial evictor and is starting to push rent-to-own deals on...

Residents of a decades-old mobile home park in Miami's Little Havana neighborhood have cleared a significant legal hurdle in their effort to stop impending evictions after 11th Circuit Court Judge Milton Hirsch denied a request by the property's owner to dismiss their case.

The ruling allows homeowners at Silver Court Mobile Home Park to continue challenging the planned closure of the community and seek to remain on the property beyond the Sept. 30 deadline outlined in eviction notices.

For residents like Joseph Madera, president of the Silver Court Homeowners Association, the decision brought a sense of relief.

"I was screaming. I was...

For more than two decades, Julia Hughes said she has watched her lot rent at Idlewild Acres mobile home park on Henderson Mill Road creep up from $110 to the $500 she pays today. But when a new notice from management announced the rate would hit $700 for “a piece of dirt,” she joined neighbors in organizing a petition and protest against what they call predatory pricing and “corporation greed.”

Idlewild Acres — one of more than 50 mobile home parks across the region that tenants say are owned or managed by Manufactured Housing Properties, Inc. (MHP), Valleo Residential, and Gvest Capital — is facing steep lot rent hikes this summer,...