Residents of a mobile home park in Searsport are seeking voter support in protecting themselves from potential rent increases imposed by their out-of-state owner.
Supporters of a measure to stabilize rents at mobile home parks in Searsport presented a model ordinance at the Select Board meeting on Tuesday. The group will have to gather at least 140 signatures in order to put the item before voters at the town meeting on March 7.
Residents of the Searsport Mobile Home Park, which is owned by MCI Searsport MHP LLC, whose principal investor is Connecticut-based Red Sky Capital Partners, have been meeting with the select board over concerns around rent and maintenance issues for months, but the proposed rule would apply to all mobile home parks in town.
The model ordinance, which aims to prevent “unreasonable lot rent and fee increases” did not include specific figures. The town manager will work with organizers to fill in those details before the next board meeting on Jan. 20.
If the board approves the legality of the proposed ordinance’s wording, its supporters will have to gather the required signatures from Searsport residents by Feb. 17 for the measure to appear on the town meeting warrant.
The Searsport rent control effort is part of a broader push in Maine to protect residents of mobile home communities from rent hikes as parks are increasingly bought by private equity firms and out-of-state investors.
Cities including Waterville and Sanford have passed moratoriums temporarily freezing lot fee increases. Voters in Jay will consider a similar measure at their town meeting this spring. Old Orchard Beach enacted a mobile home park rent stabilization measure in 2024 that limits rent increases on lots to 5% per year. Residents of the Cedar Falls Mobile Home park in Bangor outbid a corporate investor to purchase their park last year, becoming the second group in the state to do so.
Marita Dakin, a resident of the Searsport Mobile Home Park on Back Searsport Road, who attended the meeting said the rent she pays for her lot has doubled over the ten years she has lived there. She owns her mobile home but pays $500 per month to rent the lot it sits on. She does not have a lease and worries that if her rent increases more she would have to move. “I’m maxed out right now,” she said. “My social security didn’t double.”
Brenda Ellis, another park resident, said she and many residents are already struggling to get by on fixed incomes. “Everything seems to be going up,” she said. “Groceries, oil, lights — all at the same time. I’m just wondering how far my check’s going to go.”
In June, Democratic Gov. Janet Mills signed legislation aiming to protect the affordability and stability of manufactured home parks. The law directed the Governor’s Office of Policy Innovation and the Future to draft a model rent stabilization ordinance that municipalities can tailor to their needs.
Joe Hupperich, field director for the Maine Labor Climate Council, who has been organizing mobile home park residents in Searsport and elsewhere, said the group had hoped the Searsport select board would put a rent stabilization measure on the town meeting warrant without requiring supporters to gather signatures.
But they said mobile home park residents are gearing up for the task. “They’re hatching a plan to knock [on] doors,” said Hupperich. “There’s a real understanding that no one’s coming to save them, they have an opportunity to protect themselves from exploitation and they’re willing to do what they need to do.”