With rents rising at mobile home parks across the U.S., housing advocates are urging state legislatures to pass bills that would help residents buy their parks if they’re put up for sale. In …
By Claire Rush | Associated Press/Report for America
With rents rising at mobile home parks nationwide, advocates tout the cooperative model as a way to preserve one of the last affordable housing options for people with low- or fixed-incomes and to give them a greater voice in managing their parks. Nearly a third of mobile home parks in the U.S. have been bought by such investors since 2015, lured by reliable cash flow and high returns from raising rents at nearly double the general rental market rate, McCarthy said.
At Rimrock Court in the central Oregon town of Madras, rent increased from $350 to $495 over five years. When the owner notified residents he planned to sell, they feared further increases — or worse, that it would be torn down to make way for apartments. So they decided to buy it. The required rent increase to go co-op was even steeper in Evergreen Village Cooperative in Mount Bethel, Pennsylvania, — from $460 a month to $750 to pay off the $12 million loan.
Co-ops can also provide social support to residents. At Liberty Landing Cooperative in Missouri, residents started a food pantry to help neighbors in need. Other residents considering buying their parks are running up against the same forces that make them popular with investors — a red-hot market and competition from private equity firms and other prospective buyers.
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Mobile home park residents form co-ops to save their homesWith rents rising at mobile home parks across the U.S., housing advocates are urging state legislatures to pass bills that would help residents buy their parks if they’re put up for sale
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Mobile home park residents form co-ops to save their homesWith rents rising at mobile home parks across the U.S., housing advocates are urging state legislatures to pass bills that would help residents buy their parks if they’re put up for sale. In recent years, large investment firms have been buying mobile home parks across the country, often selling them for redevelopment or raising rent and displacing residents — many of them seniors and people with disabilities living on fixed incomes. Advocates say that offering residents the chance to buy their parks would help preserve a key affordable housing option, while opponents say such rules would place undue burdens on landlords. The debate comes as the nation grapples with a critical shortage of affordable housing.
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