In the four years since a large company bought the mobile home park where Heath Goodale lives, his monthly rent has more than doubled.
Goodale’s rent was $280 when he moved into Penney Lane Estates in Bradley in 2012. His first rent bump came in September 2021, shortly after Maine Real Estate Management bought the park. Since then, he has received seven rent increases of varying amounts, which drove his monthly payments up to $635.
While some rent hikes were small — an additional $30 each month — Goodale said they add up to a burden on the park residents, many of whom are retirees on a fixed income, single parents or those making minimum wage. Residents also never know when another increase is coming, or whether they’ll end.
The steeply rising cost of housing has stalled Goodale’s plans to buy a larger home. Now, he’s considering whether it would be more affordable to sell and move elsewhere.
“A mobile home was supposed to be an affordable option,” Goodale said. “I can’t afford to move but I can’t afford to stay. We don’t get much for what you’re paying for so it doesn’t seem fair to pay this much.”
Mobile home residents typically own their homes and pay for their own utilities. Their monthly rent fees allow them to park their homes on a piece of land and connect to the community’s sewer and electrical systems. Mobile home residents are also responsible for trash removal and maintaining their site, Highfill said, meaning they shovel their own driveways and mow their lawns.
Goodale, like many mobile home owners, hoped a new bill would put a stop to the continual rent hikes from large corporations and out-of-state investors. But the version of the legislation signed by the governor last month misses the target altogether, he said.
LD 1723: An Act to Amend the Laws Governing Manufactured Housing Communities to Prevent Excessive Rent and Fees Increases initially said a mobile home park owner couldn’t raise tenants’ rent more than 10 percent within a four-year period.
That provision, however, was removed from the bill before it was approved on June 20. That’s also the day Goodale received another letter from Maine Real Estate Management announcing his monthly rent will rise to $670 in September.
The final version of the bill gives mobile home residents the right to request mediation with the park owner if their rent is being raised. The law also requires the owner of a mobile home community to provide notice of a rent increase at least 90 days before it goes into effect.
“When I introduced LD 1723, my intent was to provide manufactured housing residents with protections against excessive rent hikes,” said Rep. Cheryl Golek of Harpswell. “While this law is different from what I had hoped, it will provide important safeguards.”
Goodale, however, feels the bill doesn’t go far enough.
“The bill that passed is a good start but 45 days notice or 90 days notice doesn’t matter,” he said. “They can just wait another 90 days and raise the rent again.”
Golek said she will continue to push for increased protections for mobile home residents because “there is more work to be done.”
Like Goodale, Jerry Highfill of Bowdoin has battled numerous rent increases since New York-based Philips International bought his mobile home community in 2021. The company now owns seven mobile home parks in Maine, according to its website.
Highfill’s monthly rent was $265 when he moved to Mountain View Estates in 2001, and his monthly fees increased only $80 over 20 years.
In the past four years, Highfill has received five notices that his rent was going up by as much as $75 per month. Today, he pays $525 each month and is due to see another $75 bump in September, which will bring his monthly total to $600.
Highfill created a Facebook page in August 2024 to connect the 53 residents in his neighborhood who are exhausted by the frequent price hikes. However, that group soon expanded beyond his mobile home park and held 260 members as of Wednesday.
“How do you stop the bleeding?” Highfill said. “Nobody lives in a mobile home park because they’re wealthy. In reality, this is what we can afford.”
While some mobile home residents were disappointed to see the teeth removed from the new bill, Julie Ann Smith, executive director of the Manufactured Housing Association of Maine, argued the law is a “balanced and thoughtfully crafted measure aimed at increasing transparency and providing residents with more information.”
Statewide rent control, Smith said, would be a blunt measure that likely wouldn’t work well in every corner of Maine, especially more rural parts of the state, and isn’t the solution residents may think it is.
“What works in Portland or Saco may not be effective in Millinocket or Fort Kent,” Smith said. “Applying one-size-fits-all regulations to such a diverse housing landscape could lead to unintended consequences, including disinvestment, declining community quality, and fewer housing options.”
Neither Maine Real Estate Management nor Philips International returned requests for comments.