Mobile Home Park News Briefing

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,...

A fight over the possible closure of a Petaluma mobile home park is becoming more than a local land-use dispute. It could test how much power California cities have to protect residents when one of their most affordable housing options is at risk.

As reported by The Press Democrat, the proposed closure has sparked wider debate over the laws that control when parks can be shut down or converted to other uses.

Mobile home parks occupy an unusual place in the housing market. In many cases, residents own their homes but rent the land underneath them, leaving them especially vulnerable if a property owner decides to change how...

LA CROSSE, Wis. (WKBT) — Residents at Brookview Mobile Home Park staged a show of solidarity Tuesday afternoon, gathering to address mounting financial pressures that have strained their ability to afford their homes in what was supposed to be an affordable housing community.

The scene reflected a deeper divide: while park management hosted a pizza party for residents on one side of the street, residents organized their own gathering directly across the way.

Stephanie Mikkelson, a resident at the park, expressed frustration over the lack of meaningful dialogue with upper management.

After years of fires, utility shutoffs, dangerous living conditions and complaints from former residents, demolition is finally underway at the long-troubled Lazy Wheels Mobile Home Park in Ceres.

Heavy equipment began tearing down mobile homes this week, but even as the cleanup moves forward, city leaders say questions remain about the property owner and what comes next for the site.

"It's been tragedy," Ceres Mayor Javier Lopez said. "We've had deaths here, we've had fires here, and I think somebody needs to be held accountable."

CBS News Sacramento first reported on conditions at the park last year after firefighters discovered a body...

A Florida private equity player has stepped into one of Dublin's touchiest development debates, buying the Ponderosa Mobile Home Estates, a 55-plus community tucked inside a long-planned 127-acre mixed-use site near Avery and Rings roads. The sale drops an institutional owner right into the middle of an ongoing fight over how the surrounding land should be built out and what that means for the people already living there. Neighbors and city commissioners have already aired worries about traffic, sewer capacity and the long-term fate of the park as plans for Avery Crossing move forward.

According to Columbus Business First,...

To the editor: It is unfortunate that so few mobile home parks are actually resident-owned (“Mobile homes, an overlooked refuge of affordability, are disappearing in L.A. Residents fight to stay,” July 17). In California, less than 10% of our mobile home parks are resident-owned.

What would happen if the city of Bell, Calif., for example, would sell a mobile home park to residents? Would this be a net gain in revenue for the city? No. But the money invested preparing the residents for ownership, drafting bylaws and taking care of any deferred maintenance necessary to give the new resident owners a fighting chance would be a start-up...

MOUNT VERNON — Regional Planning Commission members have approved early plans for mobile homes at the former Pacemakers Dragway and zoning changes for five townships.

Owner Larry Nelson presented a rough sketch to the land use committee last week for a mobile home development at the dragstrip.

Land Use chair Steve Bratton said Nelson will develop the property in five phases. He will start at the front and work his way around the existing main street.

“The land use committee did not have any issues with the sketch plan,” Bratton said. “We recommended to the commission to approve the sketch plan.

“I think Larry wants to be pretty...

Residents of the Silver Court Trailer Park in Miami are hoping a promised meeting with the property owner will provide more time to save their homes before a redevelopment project moves forward.

A handful of residents gathered at Miami City Hall on Thursday seeking assistance as they face a Sept. 30 deadline to vacate the property. 

Trailer owners received notices in March that there is a new plan for the property and everybody has to leave. 

Silver Court homeowners, many of whom have lived in the Little Havana community for decades, say they are determined to remain in their homes and continue fighting against the park’s closure in...

Two hundred households in an American Canyon mobile home park face whopping rent increases in September -- in many cases close to $300 a month, a boost of more than 40% for most.

As a result, some residents say they may have no choice but to move.

Built in the 1960s, Napa Olympia Mobilodge is a 201-unit mobile park on American Canyon Road near the Vallejo border. In a lot of ways, it's a time capsule: kids bike down the middle of streets with no traffic signs, and '70s Fleetwood double-wides line up in neat, colorful rows. It's also highly diverse, with people speaking Tagalog, Spanish, Vietnamese and Arabic, among other languages.

The website for Admiral Communities, a Tennessee-based company that owns manufactured home communities across the United States, says that residents can expect "service-first property management, unmatched customer service, operational excellence" and that they are "always improving and always accountable."

A new owner at a Missoula County mobile home park in Montana is drawing complaints from residents who say steep lot-rent increases and little communication are making it harder for families to remain there.

As concerns pile up over costs, maintenance, and safety, tenants are asking county officials to help push for answers.

At Target Range Mobile Home Park, residents recently organized a tenants union as lot rents climbed after Admiral Communities became the new owner, according to the Missoula Current.

Park resident Lisa Coon said her costs show how dramatic the change has been: What was once $475 in lot rent is now a...

Melissa Schroeder sits in her living room with her neighbors wondering how much longer she can afford to remain in her manufactured home, and if help will ever come.

Like many in the Red Maple Acres community — which has more than 200 lots on the border of Lower Macungie and Upper Macungie townships near Wescosville — Schroeder has had to deal with steep prices on the land she rents from the owner, GSP Management Co.

While she owns her house, she rents the lot from GSP, which recently bought the 18-acre property from ARX Communities for $30.5 million. There are also utilities and property taxes. Simply picking up and moving somewhere less...

Sanger mobile home residents, specifically from the Vista Del Monte Mobile Home Park, returned to the Sanger City Council to ask for rent control regulations amid escalating financial pressures and fears of steep space-rent increases.

The management of a mobile home park near Woodstock city limits says it is communicating with residents as a developer is considering buying the property to build a new neighborhood there.

EVANSVILLE — The city set aside $15,000 to help residents in a neglected mobile home park move out, but as of July 13, no tenants have reached out about the money.