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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.

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.

Post Independent: Residents of Glenwood-area mobile home park preparing to buy land after nonprofit intermediary takes ownership

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After an eventful first few weeks for the new nonprofit owners of the 3-Mile Mobile Home Park outside Glenwood Springs, residents are now in the early stages of organizing to take possession of the land beneath their homes.

Just days after the Roaring Fork Community Development Corporation (RFCDC) closed on the purchase of the 20-space park along 3 Mile Creek on April 27, the Manaus-led organization found itself dealing with potential flooding from the spring runoff.

Thirty-year park resident and head of park maintenance Felix Jimenez would end his long days managing the irrigation system at a local ranch and return to the park to keep an...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Not to sound like the Grinch but the non-profit spent $2.4 million on a dirt-road 20 space park, and are looking at spending maybe $600,000 more in infrastructure repair. That’s $150,000 per household spent so that they can continue to live in a dirt-road trailer park. Would it not make more sense to buy each household a debt-free stick-built house in another state? Would that not be infinitely better than what they ended up with? I’m all for programs that benefit those in need, but I’m afraid that the virtue-signaling this non-profit was after exceeded common sense.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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?

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. 

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.

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. 

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.

The Aspen Times: El Jebel land among U.S. Forest Service sites eyed for potential workforce housing

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As lawmakers address housing shortages in the West, U.S. Forest Service properties are being eyed for their potential to provide residences for local workforces, including in El Jebel.

Signed into law in December 2018, the Agriculture Improvement Act of 2018 — otherwise known as the Farm Bill — gave USFS the authority to lease its administrative sites for affordable housing. But the act has yet to result in the construction of affordable housing on those sites, and that’s in part “due to their lease terms,” said U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, “which are not long enough to provide certainty to local communities.”

A new bill being introduced by...

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Our thoughts on this story:

In a Colorado world in which bureaucrats are worried about “the ecological impact on a variety of riparian species” it’s easy to see why not a single one of these projects has been approved since 2018. I’m betting that it will be 2118 before all parties can agree to a plan that has no “riparian” impact. Until then this concept will be used for endless virtue signaling that they care deeply about affordable housing but that newts and darter snails take higher priority.

WFLA: Surviving the storm: How safe is your mobile home?

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IONA, Fla. (WFLA) —People who live in mobile homes, especially older ones, and choose to remain at home when a major storm threatens are at a much greater risk for damage and personal injury.

Bonzy Galor chose to ride out Hurricane Ian, with its 150 mile per hour winds, and 10-to-15-foot storm surge, in her mobile home. “We could not move,” she recalls, “all the totes started floating, everything was under water.” Wind and water tore their home apart.

The insurance institute of business and home safety tests mobile homes, and concludes new building techniques to make buildings safer, but how new? “IBHS tests prove newer manufactured...

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Our thoughts on this story:

I’m sorry but there’s no form of real estate that can survive 150 mph winds – which is the benchmark in this article. Mobile homes do just about as well as most things, but a windowless concrete bunker is the only way you’re going to survive a 150 mph sustained wind without ending up being thrown a couple miles.

Explorer: Town seeks opinions on housing needs

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Town officials are urging Oro Valley residents, nonresidents who work in Oro Valley, and owners of businesses within the community to take one of two 10-minute online surveys about the town’s current and future housing needs.

The surveys, conducted by consultant WestGroup Research, are part of the town’s first comprehensive housing study. Surveys opened May 9, and remain available online through Wednesday, May 31. Oro Valley wants to “ensure everyone has an opportunity” to share their views, it said in a release.

“We need all folks to participate in the survey,” said Bayer Vella, the town’s planning manager. “There are so many folks in...

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Our thoughts on this story:

I love it when bureaucrats waste time and money on studies like this. Here’s the answer for free: the people of Tucson want 7,000 sq. ft. mansions on a budget of $30 a month. What a bunch of idiots. That’s like asking 4th graders what they want for lunch at school. 

Delaware Public Media: Delaware Manufactured Home Relocation Authority extends benefits to residents of immobile RVs

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A legal battle over evictions at the Pine Haven manufactured home park in Lincoln prompts Delaware’s Manufactured Home Relocation Authority to refine some of its policies regarding residents of recreational vehicles — a less-common form of housing in Delaware's manufactured home communities.

The Authority is responsible for managing a trust fund, paid into by both the owners of manufactured home parks and manufactured homeowners, which is used to provide financial assistance to cover the cost of moving or demolishing a manufactured home.

For residents of Pine Haven, some of whom received eviction notices from the park's new owners last...

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Our thoughts on this story:

This wins the prize for dumbest article of the week: What in the heck is an “immobile” RV? Even the bureaucrats can’t actually define it as it doesn’t actually exist. They might just as well offer housing assistance if you provide a photo of Big Foot.