Voters in eight Maine towns approved measures on Election Day that will cap or freeze lot rent increases for mobile home park residents.
Most residents own their mobile homes but not the land underneath them. And as more out-of-state corporations have purchased Maine mobile home parks recently, many residents are facing drastic rent increases.
Voters approved rent stabilization measures in Augusta, Eliot, Farmington, Jay, Oakland, Standish and Wells. Wiscasset residents also approved a six-month moratorium on lot rent increases.
Lynzy Kosmes lives in Blueberry Ridge Mobile Home Park in Wells and said she paid $325 a month five years ago. Her lot rent has since nearly doubled after a New-York based company, Philips International, purchased the park.
And Kosmes said that’s too much for many of her older neighbors on fixed incomes.
“My neighbor next door has Parkinson’s. She lives off $1,200 a month. We’re now at $625, which means half of her income goes to lot rent,” Kosmes said. “It’s really coming down to, at this point, can I heat my house? Can I buy groceries? Can I afford my medication?”
In Oakland, Rhonda West said she now pays $600 a month to rent the land beneath her home at Breens Mobile Home Park. She said monthly lot rents have increased by more than $200 since another out-of-state company purchased the park a few years ago.
It wasn’t hard to convince Oakland residents to support a measure that would provide residents with some relief, West said.
“They’re like, wait a minute, you’re paying what? And you own your home? I said yes, I own my home. I’m paying this much for a lot,” she said.
A total of 16 towns in Maine have passed mobile home rent stabilization measures in response to an influx of corporate buyers that are raising rents in some parks.
This story appears through a media partnership with Maine Public.