Mobile Home Park News Briefing

Manufactured housing communities—where residents often own their homes but lease the land beneath them—have traditionally been viewed as an affordable housing option.

However, private equity firms and large investment companies are increasingly acquiring mobile home communities and raising rents.

That's what recently happened at Smoky Palms North in Clinton, TN, where rents more than doubled under new corporate ownership.

“They’re raising my rent from $275 to $650,” Lillian Goins told WATE. “Yes. I’m retired. I work two days part-time to make ends meet. I think this is absolutely ridiculous. I can understand when somebody bought it, you...

ROCKFORD, Ill. (WIFR) - A proposal to convert Riverview Mobile Home Park to an RV park was laid over Monday night.

Some community members who live at the mobile home park spoke at city council Monday night opposing the proposal.

Alderwoman Gabrielle Torina (D-5th Ward) made the motion to lay over the vote as she felt more time was needed to meet with the people who would be kicked out of their homes.

Rockford City Council’s Code and Regulation Committee did not vote on proposed development for an RV park where a single-family residential area currently stands, 2530, 2710 and 2720 S. Main Street.

Deann Sweeper’s favorite thing about her home in Lakewood Vista isn’t her view of the pond fountain at the center, or the geese nesting on its shore. It's the sense of community she’s built over eight years with her neighbors.

She said now, Lakewood Vista is for sale for the second time since she’s lived here.

"We want to keep that community,” she said. “We’re old. What are we going to do if we can’t live here anymore?”

Sweeper is chair of the board chosen by more than 200 residents to lead efforts to try and buy the mobile home park and turn it into a resident owned community. Their efforts were first reported by the Eugene...

When residents of San Lazaro mobile home park learned the property was up for sale, many shared the same fear as resident Lety Garcia: displacement. 

“We are afraid that new owners will raise rent or close the park, and many families will be displaced from their homes,” she said.

Residents say San Lazaro, located in unincorporated Boulder County near Boulder, is more than just housing for its 800-plus residents. It is a diverse, close-knit community where people know and rely on their neighbors. Many have called the park home for decades, some for more than 40 years. Unwilling to risk that community on an unknown buyer, residents are...

BRADENTON BEACH – An April 10 proposal submitted by the Pines Trailer Park homeowners for the long-term retention of the mobile park was declined by the park’s ownership group. 

The proposal, titled “Revenue Proposal for Long-Term Retention and Recovery of 88 trailers at Pines Trailer Park post-Hurricanes Helene and Milton revenue and stability plan” was sent by Pines HOA vice president Rex Geissler to Pines Park Investors LLC manager Sam Negrin and former LLC manager Shawn Kaleta. 

In an April 30 email to The Sun, Geissler wrote: “Sam and I corresponded back and forth. He was very respectful and basically said, ‘At this current moment,...

Angered by years of rising costs and scaled-back services, mobile home park residents in Killingworth plan a massive turnout at their town’s Fair Rent Committee this weekend to push for a cap on rent increases.

Many residents of the nearly 300 homes at Beechwood have become increasingly dissatisfied since Michigan-based Sun Communities bought the property in 2019, and say they fear eventually being priced out altogether.

“They have been increasing the annual rent for the land our homes occupy at an alarming rate, which will exceed $10,000 annually within nine years,” resident Barbra Shapiro said. “I live on Social Security. Sun’s...

Residents of an Anchorage mobile home park are pushing back against a plan to redevelop the property where their homes have sat, in some cases, for decades.

The developer plans to clear the area and build townhouses, and he's offering the residents $6,000 each to vacate the property so the project can move forward.

But the residents -- who own their mobile homes and rent the space upon which they sit -- say that's a fraction of what it would cost to move their homes, and many aren't sure where they'd go anyway.

Anchorage Daily News reporter Michelle Theriault Boots has followed the unfolding tension at South Park Estates.

Theriault Boots...

Residents of Silver Court Trailer Park in Miami’s Little Havana have until September to leave after the park’s owner announced plans to close the 65-year-old community. Many homeowners say the buyout offers fall far short of what their trailers are worth, leaving families facing what one called “economic annihilation.”

Jay voters approved a mobile home park rent moratorium Tuesday night by a 449–213 vote, handing a major victory to residents who have spent months organizing for stability and protection from displacement.

The measure immediately halts excessive lot rent increases, offering residents relief while the town works toward a longer-term solution, such as an ordinance adopted by other towns across the state.

“It had to be done – it was a necessity for our livelihoods,” said Tanya Dwyer, a resident of Hidden Circle Park. “It’s been a long journey, but we saw success at the end of the tunnel. We fought for what we thought was right. Now people...

Yellowstone County Treasurer Hank Peters was sitting at his desk on the morning of April 20, preparing one of the first batches of 2026 property tax bills to be mailed out, when he noticed something wasn’t quite right.

The property tax bills for mobile home owners that Peters was reviewing showed collections far higher than the previous year.

“You see the number, and it’s like, ‘OK, wow, that’s a lot more than I was expecting,’” Peters said in a phone interview Monday.

What Peters observed is happening in other Montana counties, too: Many mobile home owners — who receive their property tax bills months earlier than the rest of residential...

The city of Evansville will offer financial assistance to residents of a neglected mobile home park. WNIN’s John Gibson has details:

The City Council voted Monday night to provide up to 15-thousand dollars to help residents pay to move out 0f the park off Oak Hill Road, near Oak Hill Cemetery.

The money will come from interest earned on American Rescue Plan funds.

Residents of the park can each receive up to one-thousand dollars by the end of this year.

The non-profit HOPE of Evansville will distribute the money and return any funds not used.

The mobile home park has been the scene of fire-damaged trailers, piles of trash and debris, and...

A bill to control rent increases in manufactured home parks in New York passed in both houses.

If signed into law by Gov. Kathy Hochul, the legislation would require mobile home park owners to provide a written justification and documentation for rent increases over 3%.

Building on 2019 legislation — the Housing Stability and Tenant Protection Act, which capped rent increases at 3% — this new legislation would close a loophole that allowed park owners to raise rents above 3% without providing any justification for the increases.

In August 2025, the Times Herald-Record reported on rent increases over 3% at a Newburgh manufactured home park...

Tenants at two mobile home parks in Bozeman are set to begin a rent strike Friday after their outgoing landlord notified residents of $97 monthly rent hikes in late March. 

Occupants of over 60% of the units at King Arthur and Mountain Meadows Parks voted unanimously earlier this week to withhold their rent payments for the month of May. This move amounts to nearly $53,000, according to Bozeman Tenants United, the group organizing the effort. 

A rent strike is a collective action in which tenants withhold rent payments to pressure landlords into negotiating terms. The King Arthur and Mountain Meadows chapters of Bozeman Tenants United...

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.

MESA, Ariz. — With a final deadline looming, residents of La Casita Mobile Home Park say the emotional and financial toll of eviction has only intensified, as many struggle to find stable housing before they are required to leave.

Tenants were first issued eviction notices in October, informing them that the land would be converted for commercial redevelopment and requiring all residents to vacate by the end of April. Despite having several months to prepare, many say the process has been overwhelming and unsuccessful.

“Seeing my old man and me like this, it hurts me, because we didn't do nothing wrong, so we lost everything one day,”...

MESA, AZ — Residents in a mobile home park in Mesa were still packing up to leave the day after they were told to vacate. Some told ABC15 that they had a few more days due to extenuating circumstances.

Dozens of residents in the La Casita Mobile Home Park near McKellips Road and Mesa Drive were told they were given an eviction letter in October with a deadline date of April 30 to vacate.

In a letter given to residents, it read that the land the park was on had been sold and would be converted into commercial development.

For resident Ed Littell, leaving is a hard pill to swallow. Littell said he’s lived there for almost 30 years. It was...

Manufactured homes became known as mobile homes because there was a time when they were truly mobile, with owners moving them around the country in search of work or better places to live.

To ensure their mobility, Congress passed legislation in 1974 requiring every manufactured home to be built on a permanent chassis — a heavy-duty metal frame that could be attached to wheels.

There is now a measure to eliminate the steel chassis requirement for manufactured homes, part of a sweeping federal housing bill moving through Congress aimed at increasing homeownership and easing the shortage of low-income housing nationwide.

Housing experts...

Santa Ana, CA – On Tuesday, April 21, residents of Coach Royal mobile home park demanded Kingsley Management Corporation get out of their park. Community Service Organization Orange County (CSO OC) joined them to demand the city council intervene against years of harassment, unjust evictions, home theft, and intimidation by the corporation. The abuse resulted in the suicide of resident Maria Pedraza, whose home was in the process of being taken after years of sacrificing to purchase it.

Karla Alvarado, one of the residents whose home was stolen, stated: “The city of Santa Ana has already met with 45 residents who can testify to this. 45...

This story is part of How We Get By, a KQED series exploring how people are coping with rising costs in the Bay Area and California. Find the full series here.

When Clara Faria read her rent statement, her heart stopped. Her monthly payment would more than triple, rising from $297 per month to $995. She had four days to make the payment or be charged a $50 late fee.

She sank into the brown leather chair next to her formica-coated kitchen table, where she’d opened her mail for decades. She had heard neighbors were getting rent increases, but said she hadn’t received a notice herself. She had hoped she would be spared, but the reality was...

Yankee Traveler is a mobile home community for older Americans aged 55+ which is largely aimed at snowbirds seeking a Florida lifestyle. The park, however, instituted a new rule that homes built in or prior to 1984 can't be resold.

That applies to the Coles' home, which was built in 1984. According to management, the couple has two options: put the home up for rent, or move it out of the RV park to sell it.

The owners of Yankee Traveler stated in a document given to the couple that "homes that are older and not well maintained bring down the quality of our neighborhood," and "often create maintenance problems."

Another resident, Jim...

“It's a little more time. Yeah, it's a little more time,” he said.

LePochat has lived at Evergreen for more than two decades, calling it home while living in his 1960 Airstream for 35 years. But like many others, he’s now facing rising costs as he searches for a new place to go.

“I'm going from $500 a month to $735 a month, and on Social Security, it's just a matter of time,” he said, referencing his tight finances. “You know, if the truck breaks down. It's going to stay broke down.”

Residents say the uncertainty has been building for months. The park sold in September, followed by letters in the fall that made no mention of any major...

Since around the time Alaska became a state, a mobile home park has occupied a corner of Midtown Anchorage near the intersection of Arctic and Benson boulevards.

From the outside, South Park Estates, as the park is grandly named, is looking rough these days.

The owner of the park has announced plans to eventually raze the land and redevelop the site into townhouses. Some of the original trailers have already been demolished, and squatters have moved into others that are boarded up. Abandoned cars dot the properties, as well as piles of accumulated trash and debris.

But there’s another side of the park, in neatly tended mobile homes...

The residents of a mobile home park in Missoula brought their concerns to City Council on Monday night, seeking help in face of repeated rent hikes and what they describe as poor management by the property owner.

The issues facing North Star Court have become increasingly common in recent years as large real estate investors take ownership of mobile home parks, often followed by unchecked lease increases. The results threaten to drive out the most vulnerable park residents who often can't afford any other housing.

“We feel abandoned and neglected,” said North Star tenant member CJ Taylor. “This reflects a broader problem. We can't...

Awilda Suriel sat on the ground, her knees drawn and her head in her hands as she watched her neighbors file onto the patch of grass before her. They shifted uneasily, their arms crossed and eyes downcast. While most were silent, the few who traded muted pleasantries hushed as the homeowners of the Silver Court Trailer Park commenced their meeting.

Bringing them together was the fact that they’ll soon be driven apart.

Suriel, 43, purchased her trailer two years ago for $45,000, then sank what remained of her savings, $20,000, into making it a home — new siding, a carport, interior repairs — for her three kids.

She had saved for...

CLINTON, Tenn. (WATE) — Yet another mom-and-pop mobile home park has been purchased by corporate owners who immediately raised the rent. For many of the residents, their monthly rent will more than double, taking a big chunk out of their fixed incomes.

What’s happening across Tennessee, and in other states, is that corporations and private equity firms are buying “mom-and-pop” mobile home parks. Renters affected by the recent ownership change in Anderson County are worried.

Nearly 30 families live in the newly named Smoky Palms North mobile home park in Clinton. The former long-time owner of the park sold the property less than a month...