Mobile Home Park News Briefing

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.

BILLINGS — Residents at Golden Meadows Mobile Home Park say a steep increase in monthly lot rent could make it difficult for many of their neighbors, particularly seniors and people living on fixed incomes, to remain in the community.

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Residents recently received letters at the end of June notifying them that monthly lot rent will increase on Aug. 1 from $530 to $705, a $175 monthly increase that amounts to about 33% and an additional $2,100 per year. The increase applies to the park's roughly 520 lots, with some newer renters seeing larger increases.

Mobile home park residents of Pine Tree Estates in Standish packed the Standish Town Council meeting on Tuesday to ask for a rent stabilization ordinance.

Residents told the council that their lot rents have been raised by hundreds of dollars since RHP Properties, the largest private owner of manufactured home communities in the United States, bought the park in 2019. Many of the residents are older than 55, on fixed incomes and struggling to make ends meet as the cost of living in Maine rises.

“(Our neighbors) are scared that after spending decades building their lives here in Standish, that they may no longer be able to afford to stay,”...

Petaluma has served as a proving ground for tightened mobile home park regulations and is poised to do so again as the owners of Little Woods Mobile Villa seek to push forward with shuttering the 78-space park off Lakeville Highway.

The city has been a ground zero of sorts as a group of park owners have launched a flurry of lawsuits over new rules passed to limit rent increases on mobile home spaces and bolster resident protections as part of a wave of tighter regulations regionally and at the state level.

In June 2024, Little Woods owners notified the city of their intent to close, setting off a lengthy, complex and not often used...

The small patch of dirt encircling Carmen Silverio Guardado’s home bears fruit — lots of it. There are pomegranates, guavas, dragon fruit and nectarines. She also grows oregano and lemongrass, which she brews into a tea to soothe stomach issues.

All of this Silverio Guardado and her husband cultivate beside the two-bedroom mobile home they have owned for 12 years.

They have no plans to move — mostly because they could not afford to live anywhere else.

Mobile homes are the cheapest form of housing in California. On average, owners spend about $1,200 a month on housing, hundreds of dollars less than apartment renters and traditional...

TEMPLE, Texas (KWTX) - Residents of Santa Fe Trails mobile home park in Temple said they were told in February that the city purchased the property, and they would need to either move their trailers or find a new place to live by the end of August.

According to the City of Temple, the property was purchased after the owner offered to sell it, having decided that expanding was not an option. Now residents are being asked to relocate, and some are finding that harder than expected.

Julie Prince-Goodwin, who lives at the park on a fixed income, said she has been unable to find a new home.

“I just don’t know what I’m going to do. I have no...

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 percent for most.

SACO –– Saco may soon join other communities in capping rent increases at mobile home parks.

City Council is reviewing a proposal preventing landlords from raising rents more than once a year, and renters must get 90 days' notice.

The ordinance caps increases at either 5% or equal to the most recent Consumer Price Index annual percentage change, plus 1%, whichever is lower. The CPI tracks changes in the prices of goods and services nationwide.

The draft’s introductory language states: “Residents of those parks should expect to be protected from unnecessary, excessive cost increases because they may be put at risk of severe housing...

A manufactured home community in Albany is now owned by the people who live there. In June the residents of Albany Acres bought the property from former owner Patrick Houghton of Ranger Properties LLC.

To buy the property, residents formed a cooperative and will now run the community as a not-for-profit corporation.

“They purchase the land and infrastructure underneath their homes, and they run it as a democratic business in perpetuity afterwards,” Sarah Marchant said.

She is the chief operating officer and senior vice president of the resident-owned communities program at the New Hampshire Community Loan Fund, which provided financing...

Maria Franco has lived in the Park Royale Mobile Home Community for 25 years, in the Van Nuys neighborhood in north Los Angeles. The community has just under 150 rectangular homes, lined up neatly on a large field of mostly asphalt, with fruit trees popping up here and there.

Two years ago, Franco faced a string of bad luck. The 65-year-old lost her long-time job packing orders at a distribution company when it abruptly moved to another county, a commute too far for her to make.

Then her hot water heater clonked out, so she hauled warm water from her stovetop to her bathroom, scooping it over her head for a shower.

San Lazaro Mobile Home Park residents have started a donation campaign as they continue their effort to raise money to buy the park in unincorporated Boulder County from a private owner.

San Lazaro Park Properties bought the community, which was built in the 1960s, in 1983 and recently sent a notice of a plan to sell. State law gives residents the first right of refusal to buy the park, allowing them 120 days to organize, raise money and make a competitive offer. Based on the residents’ interpretation, if an outside offer is made, they would also have an additional 120 days to make a counteroffer.

Park owners have said the price residents...

[Video] Orange County highlights past efforts to shut down troubled mobile home park