Mobile Home Park News Briefing

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...

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...

BARNSTABLE COUNTY, Mass. —

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...

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,...

For nearly a decade, Teresa Lezama built a life at Silver Court Trailer Park in Miami.

She paid roughly $55,000 for her trailer home on park property, where she raised her family. The park where she rents land for her trailer was quiet, affordable, and stable, one of the few places left in Miami where working-class residents could realistically afford to live.

As of March 11, she said, all of that is slipping away.

“They left a notice on the door saying we had to move out,” Lezama told Prism, referencing a letter from The Urban Group, a real estate consulting firm acting on behalf of park owner 1989 Sunny Court LLC. “It affected me a lot....

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...

Residents of Plateau Village mobile home park, which is set to close at the end of the year, are pulling together for a benefit concert this weekend.

The event will take place 1 to 6 p.m. Sunday at the Barn at Stoner Commons, 605 Granite Run Drive in Manheim Township. All proceeds will go to residents of the manufactured home community for adults age 55 and over.

Four local bands are donating their services to the benefit: Winged Victory, Keri Edwards Band, Band of Llamas and Nicks In Time, a Stevie Nicks tribute band. The event will also feature Plateau Village residents telling their personal stories.

Nicks In Time lead vocalist...

For decades, the mobile home park known as Chatham Estates was an oasis of affordability off of East Chatham Street, one that allowed working-class families to live and work in the heart of Cary.

Today, it's a patchwork of empty lots, leftover debris, and homes torn from the ground. Residents have until June 30 to move out to make room for a housing development slated for the 27-acre lot.

Mexican immigrant Angelina Zúñiga will leave the community after 30 years of living in the trailas, as the mobile homes are referred to informally in Spanish.

"I've had a whole life here," said Zuniga, 62, in Spanish. "Three years ago they told us that...

Douglassville, PA – Today, Governor Josh Shapiro visited a manufactured housing community in Berks County to call for reform to protect Pennsylvanians living in manufactured home communities from predatory practices often used by out-of-state property management companies. In his 2026 Budget Address, Governor Shapiro called on the Pennsylvania General Assembly to pass legislation limiting annual lot rent increases for manufactured housing communities. This legislation, coupled with reforms included in the Governor’s 2026-27 proposed budget and Housing Action Plan, would protect manufactured homeowners and help make housing more affordable...

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...

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

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCSC) — After weeks of organizing, residents at Ferndale Mobile Home Park in North Charleston have reached an agreement with the property’s new owner, New Tide LLC, that provides more time and added relocation support as families prepare to leave the community.

Residents were initially told they had to vacate the park by May 31 after the land was sold to New Tide LLC, a deadline that many said was impossible to meet given the high cost and logistics of moving a mobile home. Families say they were offered incentives such as $1,000 for those who relocated by the deadline, but said that amount fell far short of what...

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...

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...

There are 56,000 Pennsylvania households in manufactured homes and thousands have been subjected to significant increases to their monthly lot rent in recent years.

In his budget address last month, Governor Shapiro called on the legislature to pass legislation limiting lot rent increases for manufactured homeowners.

Governor Shapiro’s visit to Douglass Village highlighted his budget proposal and his Housing Action Plan to meet Pennsylvania’s housing needs and make housing more affordable.

Douglassville, PA – Today, Governor Josh Shapiro visited a manufactured housing community in Berks County to call for reform to protect Pennsylvanians...

NORTH CHARLESTON — Over the last year, Bruce Ford has spent thousands of dollars on improvements to his mobile home where he has lived for 15 years and planned to stay for the long run.

He used his inheritance from his parents to invest $20,000 into the mobile home he owns, including a new roof and flooring, and a $3,000 porch so he can sit outside and enjoy the weather on nice days. Living at the Ferndale Mobile Home Park, he is only two miles away from North Charleston Elementary School where he works as a custodian.

“I truly believed this would be my home forever,” he said.

On March 25, Ford, along with residents living in the nearly...

It feels sometimes like we are living in plan-a-paloozaville. As tidal waves of change descend on the North Valley, it is certainly better to be prepared than not, but the number of words coming out of CB planning documents that started with Crested Butte’s Community Compass a couple years ago is setting tsunami records.
The Crested Butte town council packets put together for their meetings held every two weeks are not light and airy reading. Jam-packed with words, graphics and information, I am not sure anyone (okay, besides the mayor) can read and absorb every piece of info in those packets. I used to, but it’s getting harder and...

Sanford City Council voted Tuesday to cap rent increases at manufactured housing parks after months of organizing by mobile home residents.

The ordinance passed 6-1 and limits rent increases to once per year. It also caps rent hikes at either 3% or the rate of inflation, whichever is lower.

The next paragraph begins by explaining what the measure will do, but the indexed copy cuts off there.

WASHINGTON – U.S. Representative Ilhan Omar (D-MN) reintroduced the Frank Adelmann Manufactured Housing Community Sustainability Act, which would incentivize manufactured home park owners to sell the park to community residents or nonprofits, rather than another developer or landlord. Rep. Omar is joined by Congressman Chris Pappas (D-NH) in co-leading this legislation. Companion legislation is being introduced in the U.S. Senate by Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH).

“Manufactured homeowners deserve the same stability, dignity, and protection as any other homeowner,” said Congresswoman Omar. “Too many families who own their homes are still...

Lori Fournier calls her three-bedroom home at Meadows of Hopkinton her utopia.

In the six years since she moved in, she has remodeled the manufactured home to be everything she ever wanted, even installing an ADA-compliant walk-in shower to accommodate her disability.

But after Sado Parks, a Michigan-based investment firm, purchased the housing park in December, Fournier, 57, finds herself in a position she never anticipated — planning to sell.

“I love living here, I’d live here until I die,” she said, as her voice cracked under the emotion of it all. “But I think it’s going to be a contentious relationship with this owner, and that’s my...

NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (WCIV) — Residents of a North Charleston mobile home park say they are being forced out after the property was sold, leaving many scrambling to relocate with little time or financial support.

Tenants at the Ferndale mobile home community said they received notices in March informing them they must vacate the property by May 31. Several residents said the sudden timeline caught them off guard.

“They could have told us, ‘Hey, this is coming.’ We didn’t get that,” said resident Bruce Ford. “If they had contacted us early and offered more money, offered more time, everything would have worked out smoothly. Most of the...

The residents of yet another mobile home park near Missoula have formed a tenants union after their landlord, an out-of-state private equity firm, raised rents twice in the last year and a half.

Residents of a Hancock mobile home park say their property’s out-of-state, multinational corporate owners are steadily pricing them out of a once-affordable community.

The publicly traded corporation Sun Communities, which markets itself as one of the world’s largest real estate investment trusts, acquired Hancock Heights Mobile Home Park — a 113-site property about 10 minutes east of Ellsworth on Route 1 — about five years ago.

Since then, residents say the corporation has raised rents excessively and neglected the park’s maintenance, creating water and sewage problems that compound the financial strain on residents,...

Three weeks after authorizing a historic rent strike, the residents of King Arthur Park and Mountain Meadows Estate voted to call it off in hopes of building a better rapport with the mobile home parks’ new owners.

WARREN, Mich. – Manufactured housing residents at a Southeast Michigan community are taking the rare move and creating a resident-union. It comes after Local 4 reported on a series of stories about issues plaguing communities across the region.

“Join the resident-union. We will be there for you,” Mike Whitty, the director of the resident-union and Mr. Mike’s Neighborhood, said when reading a sign displayed in his front yard.

When you pull up to Whitty’s home at Lafayette Place in Warren, you’ll hear some old tunes and get that familiar wave.

His mission is simple.

“The service standpoint. Creating programs to be able to bring neighbors...