Mobile Home Residents Buying Parks

Residents are taking matters of ownership into their own hands. Advocates tout the cooperative model as a way to preserve one of the last affordable housing options for people with low- or fixed-incomes. With rents rising at mobile home parks nationwide, this gives residents a greater voice in managing their parks. Advocates say that offering residents the chance to buy their parks would help preserve a key affordable housing option.

The push to promote resident ownership comes as parks have become a favorite target of investment banks, hedge funds and other deep-pocketed investors. 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

Park residents often own their home but rarely the land beneath it. So if a landlord raises rent, residents can be evicted or forced to sell their home. If a park is sold to be redeveloped, mobile homes that can’t be moved are demolished.

Despite the talk of better management and stronger community, most parks aren’t co-ops. The country’s roughly 43,000 mobile home communities are home to 22 million people, according to the Manufactured Housing Institute, a national trade organization. But only about 1,000 are resident-owned, according to Carolyn Carter, deputy director at the National Consumer Law Center.

A new bill in Oregon would allocate $35 million in grants to help residents purchase their parks. Washington passed a bill last month requiring that landlords offer tenants a chance to compete to purchase their park. It also requires two years’ notice if a park will be closed, although that can be reduced if landlords financially compensate residents.