Mobile Home Residents Fight Rent Hikes

Michael Helie, left, and Sylvia and Bruce Clark talk about the plight of residents of Country Living Mobile Home Park.

Photo: Lee Burnett

By Lee Burnett

Residents of Country Living Mobile Home Park off New Dam Road are mobilizing against rent increases that they say are excessive. They’ve collected five pages of petition signatures in support of legislation to limit future increases and have gathered a comparable number from residents of Pinewood Park off Route 109 in South Sanford.

Both parks are owned by Philips International of Great Neck, NY., which also owns Marshbrook Estates Mobile Home Park off Whichers Mill Road. Residents say rents have increased from $390 per month to $515 per month since the park was sold in 2021. That’s a cumulative increase of 32 percent in three years, or about 10.6 percent a year. They’re expecting another big increase this spring.

“Most of the people here are on a fixed income, I mean very small,” said Michael Helie of Terry Drive, who gathered with neighbors Sylvia and Bruce Clark to share their stories. Helie himself is on a fixed income after working as a medical technician. “The check is so small. I can’t keep covering the increases,” he said.

Mobile homes are typically one of the most affordable housing options, but if you live in a mobile home park, you live in a real estate limbo-land. Typically, park residents own their own homes, on which they pay personal property taxes. But they don’t own the land under the home, for which they pay rent.

They have little leverage against rent increases because it’s expensive to move a home off a lot. In addition, homes can only be sold through the park owner, rather than on the open market. “Many people are stuck here,” said Helie.

Among those stuck are the Clarks, both 86, who have lived in the park since 2002. They live on Social Security and income from one retirement account. “It’s difficult,” Bruce Clark said. “I don’t understand how they can charge that much,” Sylvia said. “It’s outrageous.” The Clarks say it would be impractical and expensive for them to try to move. “It would be a little different if we were 70 or 65,” said Bruce Clark. “We’re not looking for anything long-term.”

Their message was echoed by park resident Brenda Brault, who makes ends meet working as both a paralegal and a loan signing agent. “We’ve been getting astronomical increases,” she explained in a telephone interview. “It’s not easy. I’ve got plenty of other bills. I have two jobs. I don’t have any options. Where am I going to go?”

The causes of rent increases are many and unique to each mobile home park, according to a spokesperson for the manufactured housing industry. Post-Covid property tax increases are one common factor, said Julia Smith, executive director of the Manufactured Housing Association of Maine. Another is the transition to new ownership and the need to update “artificially low” rents from prior owners who may have paid off a mortgage or under-invested in infrastructure improvement, she said. “These [costs] are not preventable.”

The plight of residents at Country Living is playing out across the state, says Rep. Cheryl Golek, D-Harpswell, who has introduced legislation limiting rent increases at mobile home parks to 10 percent over four years, or 2.5 percent per year on average. Under current law, rents can be hiked by up to 10 percent at a time, but there is no limit on the frequency of hikes if proper notice is given. The bill would require a notice of 90 days, twice the current notice requirement of 45 days for an increase more than 10 percent.

“One in five parks is now owned by an out of state corporation,” according to Golek. “They are buying them up at an alarming rate. On face value you might think that’s good; they are saving affordable housing, but that’s not what’s happening. They’ve been rapidly raising rents.”

Golek said mobile home park residents are particularly vulnerable. “They can’t just walk away,” she said. “They own their homes, they’ve invested in them and plan to retire, but they can’t easily be moved.” Golek has been told of people forced to abandon homes or sign them over to a park. With more than 600 mobile home parks in Maine, she said, “it’s an enormous problem.”

The Sanford Springvale News tried to reach Philips International for a comment. Two phone calls went unanswered and unreturned.

The Manufactured Housing Association of Maine opposes Golek’s legislation and points out that no studies have been done to validate the need or benefit to a 10 percent cap. “It’s not that it’s not reasonable, it’s that it’s arbitrary,” said Smith. She said it would hamstring park owners who may be trying to catch up on maintenance long-deferred by prior owners. “You have to be able to raise rents to cover those costs,” she said. It could potentially lead park owners to convert land to another more lucrative use, reducing the overall supply of housing, she said.