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Mobile Home Park News Briefing

WTXL: Cherokee Estates mobile home park closing after decades, leaving Tallahassee families scrambling for housing

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NORTHWEST TALLAHASSEE, FL — Cherokee Estates on White Drive is closing after more than 50 years, displacing residents who received 30-day notices to vacate. The owner cites an untraceable water leak that more than doubled the property's monthly water bill.

WATCH FULL REPORT BELOW:

Owner Rick Hartsfield says his father built Cherokee Estates in 1967, but the more-than-5-acre property has been in the family since the 1920s. Hartsfield says an untraceable water leak caused the property's monthly water bill to jump from about $6,000 to more than $13,000.

"It's just a legacy that, you know, for unforeseen circumstances that we're having to...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Frank Rolfe

And another park bites the dust.

Spectrum News: Arundel votes to stabilize mobile home park rents

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ARUNDEL – Residents in Arundel have passed a new ordinance that will limit how much property owners can raise monthly rent rates on mobile homes in town.

Residents passed the measure at the annual town meeting on June 10. Town Clerk Rachel Bull said an actual tally of the vote was not available, but 175 voters were present, and it passed by a show of hands.

“There were so many ‘yesses’ you could hear the arms go up,” said Jennifer Moreau, who lives on Shady Lane in Shady Oaks Mobile Home Park.

Bull said the ordinance went into effect on passage. The new ordinance, according to town documents, limits the number of times property owners can...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Frank Rolfe

“That’s unsustainable for people in trailer parks,” she said. “It’s usually low-income people, retirees, disabled veterans, and this is why we came here was because it was sustainable.”

No, that’s absolutely not what the bulk of mobile home park residents are. Not even close. But that’s exactly who the woke media wants to convince you live in “trailer parks” to justify their insatiable thirst for rent control.

TRIBLIVE: Tribune-Review Search news Community Events Businesses Offers Best of the Best Post Get Verified Newsletters Print Ads Coupons triblive.com Get Verified Account ‘Pass the bills,’ manufactured homeowners chant in Harrisburg

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Residents, lawmakers, and affordable housing advocates are pressing the Pennsylvania Senate to act on manufactured home community protections that have stalled in that chamber for one year.

Speakers at a recent press conference in Harrisburg criticized out-of-state investment and private equity firms, saying they are dramatically increasing lot rents while allowing services and upkeep to deteriorate – undermining one of the last truly affordable homeownership options available to many Pennsylvanians.

Chants of “Pass the bills!” were heard throughout the event, as residents filled the Capitol Media Center to standing-room-only...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Frank Rolfe

Chants of “Pass the bills!” were heard throughout the event, as residents filled the Capitol Media Center to standing-room-only capacity. House Bill 1250, introduced by Rep. Liz Hanbidge, D-Montgomery County, passed the House in June 2025 by a vote of 144-59. The Senate Urban Affairs & Housing Committee recently voted to advance Senate Bill 746, sponsored by state Sen. Judy Schwank, D-Berks County, which would give manufactured home residents the right of first refusal if their community is put up for sale.

Sorry, all you Pennsylvania socialists, but the Pennsylvania Senate is currently 28 seats Republican and only 22 seats Democrat. Rent control has a zero percent chance of passage. Read the above carefully – the Pennsylvania Senate is proposing giving park tenants first refusal but NOT any rent control. Josh Shapiro is so desperate for attention that he’s gaslighting this as some type of big deal. It’s not.

News Center Maine: Jay takes next steps on rent control ordinance for mobile homes

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JAY, Maine — The Select Board faces a busy summer as it works toward an August deadline to draft an ordinance that would limit rent increases for mobile home lots.

The board is also considering whether to replace the Jay Police Department’s outdated Tasers.

Town Manager Shiloh LaFreniere told the board Monday night that a mobile home rent‑control ordinance must be approved by Aug. 24 to appear on the Nov. 3 ballot.

On April 28, voters at the annual town meeting approved writing an ordinance to freeze lot rental fees for mobile home parks, retroactive to Dec. 8, 2025. Mobile home residents, who generally own their homes but rent...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Frank Rolfe

I gave up on Maine months ago. Sure, enact rent control and crown Graham Platner as your Senator – the state has become a bastion of idiocy and the laughingstock of the nation.

WCAX: Residents at Fair Haven mobile home park facing eviction

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FAIR HAVEN, Vt. (WCAX) - Residents of Green Mountain Mobile Home Manor in Fair Haven must move out by Sept. 1 as administrators plan to close the park and sell the property.

ohn Capen and Pauline Larose have lived at Green Mountain Mobile Home Manor for the past few years after moving out of the state’s hotel voucher program.

“We’re looking at options about going out of the state because the housing here is just so short and we came from a hotel ourselves for two years before we got our place,” Larose said.

 

“It is all famliies, elderly, people who truly need to keep their homes,” Capen added.

Court-appointed administrator Kevin Kite...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Frank Rolfe

And another park bites the dust.

The Aspen Times: Pitkin County presses ahead on Phillips Mobile Home Park redevelopment

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The Pitkin County Board of County Commissioners voted Wednesday to override the Planning and Zoning Commission’s finding of non-conformance for the Phillips Mobile Home Park redevelopment, citing rapidly deteriorating and dangerous infrastructure.

The Phillips Mobile Home park was purchased by Pitkin County to help preserve affordable housing that otherwise would’ve been lost if the park had been sold on the open market. When Pitkin County purchased the park, commissioners knew of infrastructure challenges and conducted a Health Impact Assessment. The board has since focused on housing safety, wildfire resilience, and water and wastewater...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Frank Rolfe

And another park bites the dust.

UnHerd: When private equity came for trailer parks: Residents live in terror of eviction

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I’ve never been called “trailer trash”, but I did live in a trailer in Northeast Georgia in my early teens. Trailers don’t have the best reputation, but I liked it better than the home I grew up in. It was well-insulated, with a shotgun floorplan, so my room was far from my mother’s and her boyfriend’s, giving me more privacy than when we’d shared a wall (Iggy Pop, who lived with his parents in a trailer in Ypsilanti, Michigan, felt differently, and tells how he used to draw pictures of fantastical, u-shaped trailers where a boy would have space to hide). There was a hill I could skate down, woods to walk through, and because we were...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Frank Rolfe

The only reason any tenant should fear eviction is if they 1) don’t pay their rent or 2) make gross violations of park rules. The insane narrative that private equity groups want to evict all their customers has to be the dumbest gaslighting by socialists since pretending that Biden had not lost his mind.

WIFR: Mayor McNamara shares thoughts on delayed Riverview Mobile Home Park vote

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ROCKFORD, Ill. (WIFR) - Rockford City Council delayed a vote to convert Riverview Mobile Home Park into a RV and 5th wheel community.

Mayor Tom McNamara says he never wants to see things delayed, but adds it may be worse if city council members vote without having all their questions answered.

Midwest Yard Holdings proposed converting Riverview Mobile Home Park into a residential-style RV park known as Rock River Commons. Midwest Yard Holdings submitted 2 options, both of which include building 85 concrete pads across the 15 acres.

“I would say we want our aldermen to be informed about any decision they’re making, especially one of this...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Frank Rolfe

And another park bites the dust.

WLRN: Little Havana mobile home owners gear up legal fight against development

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Attorneys for the residents of Silver Court Trailer Park have asked a judge to halt eviction proceedings on the Little Havana property, citing a Florida mobile home law meant to protect vulnerable people from becoming homeless.

The Silver Court Homeowners Association (HOA) filed a motion for a temporary injunction in Miami-Dade County court, arguing 1989 Sunny Court LLC — the park's owner — didn't get the legally-required government permission to change the zoning on the mobile home park before evicting people.

"The HOA seeks a declaratory judgment against 1989 SUNNY COURT LLC finding that it violated its obligation of good faith and fair...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Frank Rolfe

And another park bites the dust.

Spectrum News: Keeping manufactured homes affordable in Wisconsin

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ALTOONA, Wis. — For some Wisconsinites, manufactured or mobile homes might be one of the last ways they can live affordably.

However, in recent years, private equity firms have begun buying up those types of living communities, with some raising lot rent and neglecting needed maintenance. Others have gone so far as to evict everyone living there

In manufactured home parks, many residents own their homes but rent the land on which they sit. For people with that type of living situation, Wisconsin doesn’t have any protections in place for them.

Steve Parliament serves as treasurer of the Wisconsin Manufactured Home Owners Alliance. Back in...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Frank Rolfe

However, in recent years, private equity firms have begun buying up those types of living communities, with some raising lot rent and neglecting needed maintenance. Others have gone so far as to evict everyone living there.

Oh my gosh is this stupid. Let’s break down the idiocy:

  • It’s not just private equity groups raising rents, it’s everybody. And it’s not just mobile home park rents that are going up – it’s everything. Looks at insurance prices, gas prices, good prices – you name it – and it’s all up by a huge amount.
  • New park buyers are the only ones injecting collectively millions of dollars annually in bringing old mobile home park infrastructure back to life. There is not a single case – not one—of a mobile home park that was bought by a private equity group that is not much nicer now than it has been in decades and if you think to the contrary, show me an example.

  • Private equity groups have absolutely no desire to “evict everyone”. Why would they? They are buying income properties and would be nuts to destroy their income stream. It costs the park owner around $10,000 every time a home goes abandoned.

This writer is just another woke idiot pushing narratives that they don’t even understand.

WGME: Biddeford mobile home park residents ask city to pass rent control ordinance

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BIDDEFORD (WGME) -- Mobile home rents are on the rise.

Residents at a Biddeford mobile home park say their monthly rent has soared.

Tuesday night, they say thought relief was in sight, as city leaders debated a new rent control ordinance. But in the end, there was no deal.

Madeline Gallant has lived in a three-bedroom, two-bath home for nine years.

And for a time, she had it all to herself.

  • Also read: Sanford City Council passes mobile home rent control ordinance

“I had to have my daughter and grandson come,” Gallant said.

She says she needed to bring them in just so she could afford her rent, which has gone from $300 a month to $650 in...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Frank Rolfe

There’s so much wrong with Maine anymore, that I won’t waste the effort to make the list. Graham Platner can have the place – it’s a political cesspool with a state population smaller than most medium-sized cities.

WSOC Tv: ‘Much above fair market’: Neighbors say mobile home lot rent has become unaffordable

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Neighbors in a mobile home park say they are now paying hundreds of dollars more each month just to rent their lots.

A petition drive already has dozens of signatures from folks who live at Idelwild Acres in Burke County. Many of the people there own their homes, but they say they can't afford the steep price increase for the land it sits on.

Julia Hughes showed Channel 9's Dave Faherty the signatures on the petition drive at Idlewild Acres mobile home park. She recently got a notice that her lot rental would be going up to $700 a month on August 1.

"And they want to go up on my lot … just my lot, not my trailer. I own my trailer, they...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Frank Rolfe

With all these type of articles, you have to wonder who the judge is of “fair market”. Here’s what Bestplaces.net says about Morgantown, North Carolina: Single-family home average $220,000 and 2-bedoom apartment rent $1,300 per month. So how exactly is $700 per month lot rent “above fair market”? Of course, it’s not. Not even close. But asking residents if their rent is above fair market is akin to asking a barber if you need a haircut. Since that’s the dilemma, smart people turn to actual experts on housing stats and, sadly for station WSOC, the experts clearly show this is utter nonsense.

WFMZ: Shapiro calls for protections for manufactured home residents

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READING, Pa. – During his budget speech Tuesday, Gov. Josh Shapiro highlighted what he says is a growing housing problem across Pennsylvania.

“Christine Ziemer, who lives in Berks County and joins us here today, knows this firsthand,” Shapiro said. “Christine and her husband, Joe, who passed away late last year, they downsized in 2019 to move closer to their grandkids.”

The governor explained that Ziemer and her husband bought into a manufactured home community — a type of housing where residents own their homes, but not the land. According to Shapiro, more than 56,000 households across Pennsylvania live in similar communities.

“That’s...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Frank Rolfe

Much like Josh Shapiro’s political future, rent control in Pennsylvania has already been deflated by the very Republican Pennsylvania Senate. Shapiro’s favorability rating is now down to around 50%. I guess that people in Pennsylvania have decided there’s more to life than being “woke and broke”.

Realtor: These Mobile Home Residents Hope To Buy the Whole Park for $42.5M To Avoid Rent Hikes

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Damien Teague has lived in San Lazaro Mobile Home Park in Boulder County, CO, for 18 years.

So when he received a Post-it on his door on March 20 saying that the owners were planning to sell the park for $42.5 million, his heart sank.

"The next morning, I was sitting on my back porch working with ChatGPT to explore my options, just feeling the stress of the unknowns," he tells Realtor.com®. "As I was sitting there, I also felt the stress of the 212 other households that were feeling the same thing, and that was enough for me to take action."

The medically retired Navy veteran had learned of a Colorado law granting mobile home...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Frank Rolfe

How exactly can you buy a mobile home park for $42.5 million and not have massive rent hikes to cover your new mortgage payment? Obviously, you can’t. WHAT A BUNCH OF IDIOTS.

Ellsworth American: Hancock Heights residents seek relief from rising costs at mobile home park

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When Brenda Dewitt moved into Hancock Heights Estates, a 100-plus site mobile home park outside Ellsworth, three years ago, she was expecting to retire and live off her Social Security for her golden years.

Now, she said, rent and water rate increases have prompted her to return to work for the first time in four years. Her monthly rent has gone up nearly $30 from last year, with rate increases varying by resident to $60 or more.

“I’ve had to go back to work, and it’s killing me,” Dewitt said. “I have two bad knees that need to be replaced, a bad lower back, but I need to work to pay the bills. My husband is 72 years old, and he...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Frank Rolfe

Now, she said, rent and water rate increases have prompted her to return to work for the first time in four years. Her monthly rent has gone up nearly $30 from last year, with rate increases varying by resident to $60 or more.“I’ve had to go back to work, and it’s killing me,” Dewitt said. “I have two bad knees that need to be replaced, a bad lower back, but I need to work to pay the bills. My husband is 72 years old, and he shouldn’t have to work, either.”

I’m sorry but if a $30 rent increase means you have to go back to work, then you need to sell your mobile home and move back in with your family because the price of a single fill-up of gas has increased more than $30 by itself. Yet again, another article that wants to use a single example of someone who lives on the fringes of normalcy as the posterchild of public policy.

M Live: An investor promised to overhaul a mobile home park with a $2M grant. Today, it sits vacant.

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DEWITT TOWNSHIP, MI - Rebecca Jackson moved out of her home of seven years at the end of March.

 

Jackson, 52, now lives five minutes down the road, but she still misses the animals that wandered through her yard at Kristana Mobile Home Park in DeWitt Township, about three miles north of Lansing.

“It’s been really hard on me. We don’t see the deer. We don’t see everything we had out there,” she said. “On a bad day, we’d go out, sit and watch them. It seems like they took it away.”

 

The aging mobile home park, once slated for redevelopment with a $2 million grant from the state, now sits vacant: condemned homes, overgrown grass...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Frank Rolfe

And another park bites the dust.

WCVB: SJC ruling deals setback to Cape Cod mobile home park residents, but could help others statewide

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The state’s highest court has ruled against residents of a Cape Cod mobile home park who wanted to buy their community — but the decision could make it easier for other manufactured housing residents in Massachusetts to do the same.

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court ruled Friday that residents of Pocasset Park in Bourne did not meet all the legal requirements needed to purchase the park under the state’s right of first refusal law.

That law gives manufactured housing residents the opportunity to buy their community before it is sold to another buyer, as long as they meet certain requirements and match the...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Frank Rolfe

But the court also found the residents did not secure the necessary financing by the legal deadline, meaning they did not meet the law's requirements to buy the park.

Park owners have never had a problem with selling to the residents but the problem is that the residents fail in their mission about 99.9%  of the time – such as in this example.

WIFR: Rockford committee OKs permit to convert mobile home park to RV community

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ROCKFORD, Ill. (WIFR) - Rockford’s Code and Regulation Committee advances a proposal that would see a change of ownership for a mobile home neighborhood along South Main Street.

The committee approved the special use permit for a planned RV park in a 3-1 vote, with Alderman Tamir Bell being the sole vote against the measure.

If passed by the full council, River View Mobile Home Park would be owned under Midwest Yard Holdings, which has plans to change the mobile home park to an RV and “5th wheel” community, which would force current residents to move.

The proposal now heads to the full council for potential final approval.

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Our thoughts on this story:

Frank Rolfe

Cities and towns always love it when a mobile home park converts to RV Park as they see that as a total upgrade in the park population demographics coupled with zero public school cost.

The Conversation: When private equity firms buy mobile home parks, rent increases leave residents with few affordable options in rural areas

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Roughly 20 million Americans live in manufactured houses, which are homes made in factories.

Although they’re often called mobile homes or trailers, that’s really a misnomer because their owners can’t easily relocate them. Typically, the people who own them rent the land underneath the houses from the owners of manufactured home parks. Sometimes, an owner will rent their home to someone else while paying to rent the land as well.

Manufactured homes tend to be far more affordable than other single-family homes because they have lower upfront and monthly expenses. A typical one costs around US$120,000; smaller ones, known as single-wides,...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Frank Rolfe

Leave it to a college student in Wisconsin to write an article this stupid. Let’ just point out the key gaslighting mistakes they make in their “theory”:

  1. You cannot dictate policy for the majority by using specific examples of the fringe. This is the example of why mobile home park lot rents are supposedly “evil”:  “There was a trailer for sale, and it was decent,” he said. “I had a little savings and workers comp, so I bought it for $9,000, thinking I could afford to live there on my disability income.” That plan broke down when a private equity firm bought his park and instantly raised his monthly rent from $350 to $500, now costing him more than half of the $800 a month in Social Security Disability Insurance benefits he received.”
    Exactly where can someone on disability live in the entire U.S. – including every housing option on earth – for $800 per month? The answer is NOWHERE. Using this guy as your example of the plight of housing is as bizarre as using someone missing their limbs as an example for car design ergonomics.

  2. The concept of moving an old trailer has absolutely nothing to do with the problem. Check out this quote from the article: It’s hard for people like Perez to relocate a manufactured home. That’s because moving them after installation is expensive, costing anywhere between $5,000 to $10,000. These costs leave low-income residents effectively stuck if their rents rise beyond their means.” If the problem is that lot rents are too high, then how would moving the old trailer to another park with too-high lot rents solve anything? This guy has the following options 1) sell the mobile home for the $9,000 he paid and then 2) move in with family or get into the Section 8 program. That’s it. No other scenario works.

  3. You might want to take a course in economics. Check out this quote: Nationally, rents in these parks have increased by 45% over the past decade.” I guess the writer never thought through the fact that a 45% increase over 10 years equates to an average of 4.5% per year – which is just about the rate of inflation in the U.S. over that same period.

This journalist needs to stay in academia because their grasp of the real world is pathetic.

The Sentinel: Manufactured homeowners, property owners in limbo as legislation stalls

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(The Center Square) – Legislation designed to protect residents in Pennsylvania’s manufactured home communities has been stalled in committee for a year, leaving homeowners, residents, and the industry itself in limbo.

 

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Our thoughts on this story:

Frank Rolfe

Nobody is in “limbo” who has a brain and uses it. Everyone already knows that Pennsylvania has a Republican Senate that will never approve any woke landlord regulations.

News4: South Reno mobile home park closure deadline passes, some low-income residents remain

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RENO, Nev. (News 4 & Fox 11) — The deadline has passed for residents to leave Evergreen Trailer Park in south Reno, but not everyone has been able to find a new place to live.

At the end of April, residents were told they had 30 days to move out. The deadline for everyone to leave was Sunday, and as of Monday morning, there were still a few people who had not left.

Glory, a resident, said the park has been an affordable place to live during a difficult time. She has not found a new place to live.

“The rent is affordable. After I went through my divorce, I couldn't afford much and starting over is hard. This has been home and everybody...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Frank Rolfe

And another park bites the dust.

Duluth Monitor: Remaining two residents ordered to leave beleaguered Hermantown trailer park

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In December of 2024, due to ongoing building code violations at Hermantown’s Maple Field Trailer Par...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Frank Rolfe

And another park bites the dust.

WLRN: Little Havana trailer park residents want more time, more money before being forced to move

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The soon-to-be-removed residents of the Silver Court Trailer Park know they can't stay — they're just asking for more time to pack up and leave the homes they've owned for decades.

This past March, mobile home owners at the park in Little Havana were notified by the park owner, Zan Marquis, of California-based Marquis Property Company, that the land would be redeveloped and the residents had six months to vacate the premises. The owner has not said what the park will be redeveloped into, nor has the property been rezoned for a new use as yet.

"I've lived in Silver Court for 25 years," 68-year-old park resident Victoria Diaz told WLRN in...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Frank Rolfe

And another park bites the dust.

Aspen Public Radio: Community effort to help residents buy Cavern Springs Mobile Home Park could inform regional strategy, but challenges remain

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Local residents, nonprofits, governments and private donors are once again rallying together to help a for-sale mobile home park become a resident-owned community. If the purchase is successful, Cavern Springs Mobile Home Park — located in unincorporated Garfield County along Highway 82 between Carbondale and Glenwood Springs — would be the fourth park in the Roaring Fork Valley over the past year to transition to resident ownership.

Residents of mobile home parks often own their homes but rent the land underneath from a private landlord, leaving them vulnerable to displacement if owners redevelop or raise...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Frank Rolfe

To meet the full sale price and fund potential infrastructure updates, residents and their nonprofit partners need loan financing from several lenders, including the Impact Development Fund — a regional Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) that provides flexible loans for affordable housing — and Boulder-based nonprofit Thistle Community Housing.

When you buy a mobile home park, most lending falls into a 10-year note which needs to be renewed at least two more times to full maturity. Look at the complexity of the above loan construction and tell me how that’s going to work 5 or 10 years from now. No way that loan’s going to be renewed. Then the park goes back on the market. Pretty stupid, right?

But even dumber is the concept that 98 households can buy a park for $23 million – that’s right, over $200,000 per space – and not have the rents go up exponentially to service that loan. These folks are going to have the same lot rent hikes whether they buy the park or a real company does.

ClickOnDetroit: Redford Township mobile home residents given 30-45 days to leave amid safety concerns

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REDFORD TOWNSHIP, Mich. – Residents of Long’s Mobile Home Court on Plymouth Road are facing a tight deadline to find new housing after Redford Township — now owner of the property — says infrastructure failures and unsafe living conditions have made the site uninhabitable.

Township officials say residents have 30 to 45 days to leave following recent court action and eviction notices served to the park. For many residents who have called Long’s home for years, the news has been devastating.

“Half of us haven’t even been sleeping. We don’t know what to do anymore,” said Lori Gauthier, a resident of the park. “You know I just started to get...

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Our thoughts on this story:

Frank Rolfe

And another park bites the dust.