the more you know about how housing works, the better off your are
Sorted by quarter, updated monthly. If you have documented news, send us a link!
Also: See NMHOA Facebook page for news aggregation nationwide
And: MHPHOA news, California
Unaffordable rents are linked to premature death, Princeton study finds
“We were surprised by the magnitude of the relationship between costs and mortality risk,” said Nick Graetz, a postdoctoral research associate at Princeton University and the study’s lead author. “It’s an especially big problem when we consider how many people are affected by rising rents. This isn’t a rare occurrence.”
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In addition to the consequences of unaffordable rent, they found that even being threatened with eviction was associated with a 19% increase in mortality. Receiving an eviction judgment was associated with a 40% increase in the risk of death.
CNBC
Dec. 19, 2023
Cavco Releases First HUD-Approved Manufactured Duplex Homes
PHOENIX, Dec. 12, 2023 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Cavco Industries, Inc. (Nasdaq: CVCO) (“Cavco” or the “Company”) is proud to announce a significant innovation in the manufactured home industry with the launch of the first nationally available, manufactured duplex approved by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (“HUD”). Dubbed the “Anthem,” this trailblazing series of homes marks a significant advancement in providing affordable housing, aligning with the Federal government’s push for creative housing solutions to combat rising prices.
Yahoo Finance
Dec. 12, 2023
Tell Me More with Kelly Corrigan
Matthew Desmond
There’s so much poverty in this nation because many of us benefit from it, and that’s the cold, hard truth of the matter, you know, and I think that– There’s this line by the novelist Tommy Orange that I quote in the book where he writes, you know, “These kids are jumping “out of the windows of burning buildings, “falling to their deaths, and we think that the problem is that they’re jumping”… Mm-hmm.
We’re doing so much more to subsidize affluence than to alleviate poverty in this country.
PBS
Oct. 16, 2023
Petaluma’s mobile home rent control challenged as ‘unconstitutional’
Owners of two Petaluma mobile home parks—Youngstown and Littlewoods—have filed against the city. Their lawsuit alleges the city’s rent control ordinance and other steps it has taken to preserve affordability are unconstitutional.
Northern California Public Media
Dec. 11, 2023
Mobile homes are rising in value. But current residents can’t cash out
Residents of mobile homes say that unlike single-family homes, typically houses that buyers purchase as an investment as much as a residence, mobile homes become more burdensome with time. They can fall into disrepair, making them less attractive to potential buyers. And the private companies who own the land can lowball on price when offering to buy the homes.
Plus, for many mobile homeowners, choosing to sell right now would mean entering an even tighter housing and rental market.
So, even as the values of their homes rise, owners are finding they’re stuck.
NPR
Oct.27, 2023
Pine Haven residents pleading for help
Residents said they are the end of their rope trying to resolve ongoing water, sewer and electric issues, some of which have plagued the community for years.
Cape Gazette
Jan. 5, 2023, Ron MacArthur
- Gov. Gavin Newsom of California signed over 50 bills this month designed to combat the housing crisis.
- Pro-housing advocates are celebrating this legislative session’s wins.
- The laws legalize lots of affordable-housing construction and lift some burdensome regulations.
Insider
Oct. 22, 2023
Lack of Laws to Protect Tenants Leave Mobile Home Owners Lacking Liberty
Freedom is a tricky thing. For instance, the freedom from regulation in the mobile home park business gives the landlords lots of freedom but leaves tenants in fear of losing their homes.
Such is the freedom-tension playing out at Prairie Acres Estates on the north side of Rapid City, where new out-of-state owners appear to be jacking up the rent, piling repair demands on tenants, and threatening to evict those who don’t comply before winter:
Dakota Free Press
Oct. 16, 2023
Is the “mom-and-pop” landlord a myth?
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Unfortunately, should the Supreme Court not take the case, relief may prove only temporary. The executive director of CHIP hopes their lawsuit can be used as leverage in legislative negotiations toward an “amicable solution that doesn’t require a court decision.” The landlords’ march will continue apace, whether it be in the courts, the legislature, the media, or the streets. In reaction to the 2019 pro-tenant law passed in New York, pandemic-era eviction moratoriums, mass non-payment of rent, and resurgent tenant power, the landlord lobby—with the reinvigorated mom-and-pop figure as its friendly face—has gone on the offensive in ways not seen in decades. And they’re more organized than ever: from small landlords in central Brooklyn to moderate Democratic state legislators in Albany, think tank technocrats in D.C. to real estate billionaires, they’ve all unified to defend private property from democratic incursion. No matter what happens at the Supreme Court, this is just the beginning.
Thebaffler.com
Oct. 2, 2023
Will California Apartment Association’s Billionaires Club Destroy California?
It’s why we recently deemed the California Apartment Association and corporate landlords public enemy number one.
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Over the years, Housing Is A Human Right has published numerous articles about corporate landlords using the California Apartment Association to carry out their dirty work. Most prominently, major real estate companies and the CAA spent a staggering $175.4 million to stop Proposition 10 in 2018 and Proposition 21 in 2020 – the statewide ballot measures would have ended rent control restrictions in California.
As a result of Big Real Estate’s destructive handiwork, California’s housing affordability and homelessness crises have only worsened. Homeless deaths have increased in Los Angeles and other major cities in California, and there are more rent-burdened tenants in the Golden State than anywhere in the United States.
LA Progressive
Sept. 16, 2023
Mobile homes could be a climate solution. So why don’t they get more respect?
We like to denigrate manufactured housing, but new units are better for the environment.
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According to Andrew Rumbach, a senior fellow at the Urban Institute, mobile homes are a good solution with a bad reputation.
Grist.org
Sep 08, 2023
Mobile homes have a long history of being stigmatized — but now, more young adults are using TikTok to share what it’s like living in mobile homes and mobile home communities.
Their videos show that today’s trailers can include modern upgrades like soaking tubs and spacious front porches, as well as a more affordable option for housing and stability in a fluctuating home market.
In the Know by Yahoo
Sept. 5, 2023
Is Rent Control The Answer To Rising Evictions?
The pandemic made monthly rent payments soar, rising 15 percent between 2020 and 2022. According to risk management firm Moody’s Analytics, the typical American is now rent-burdened, meaning rent is more than 30 percent of their income.
Evictions are also on the rise since the pandemic, with some cities seeing filings increases by as much as 50 percent, according to Princeton University’s Eviction Lab.
This has led some cities and states to consider rent regulations. This month, three Los Angeles municipalities enacted rent control. Massachusetts could be considering rent control on the ballot next year. And last month, Maryland’s Montgomery County voted to adopt rent stabilization.
NPR Laist
Aug 29, 2023
Rent Control: As American as Apple Pie
Unfortunately, greed is as American as apple pie, too – and tenants are suffering the life-altering consequences.
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But by the 1980s, the real estate industry pushed back, using powerful lobbying organizations such as the California Apartment Association and the National Apartment Association. On the behalf of landlords, the groups aggressively lobbied state legislatures across the country to pass rent control bans or rent control restrictions.
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Today, more than 35 states have laws that stop the expansion of rent control. The tenant rights movement to protect middle- and working-class renters against predatory landlords and homelessness has been handcuffed ever since.
LAProgressive
Aug 12, 2023
How climate change could cause a home insurance meltdown
Pratt, like hundreds of thousands of other homeowners in California, now faces the state’s growing climate threats with a weaker safety net. Over the past two years, several big insurers, including Allstate and State Farm, have scaled back their home insurance businesses in California to avoid paying billions for wildfire damage, or have halted sales of new policies altogether. Homeowners like Pratt are finding out that their longtime insurers have decided not to renew coverage.
California isn’t alone. Insurance companies in states like Colorado, Louisiana and Florida are paring down business to shield themselves from ballooning losses as climate change fuels more-intense disasters.
NPR, LAist
July 22, 2023
Fighting eviction to build class power
The Tenant Class gets a lot right, but disappointedly gives the power to policymakers
Canadian Dimension
July 20, 2023
2023 Duty to Serve Public Listening Sessions: Manufactured Housing Market
Video transcript excerpt – 1:45:50
“I know I could be next . I was homeless so I am telling you right now in housing in the United States – the seeds of rebellion have already been planted.
And I will tell you what I will die for. I will die for shelter.
I’m not going to go to some other country and try to get this and that and the other.
I’m not even going to die right now for our Constitution which doesn’t even protect me. It protects a landlord – doesn’t protect me for shelter so we have work to do in the United States.
And if the next civil war in the U.S – it goes down in the history books maybe it’ll be called – that started with the Imperial Estate’s Rebellion one.”
– Jill Borders, Borders Family, San Jose, CA
YouTube, FHFA Channel
July 19, 2023
Senate Democrats take aim at investor home purchases
Democratic lawmakers introduced a bill Tuesday aimed at curtailing investor activity in the housing market that can drive up home prices.
The Stop Predatory Investing Act, introduced by Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and others, would restrict investors who purchase 50 or more single-family rentals from deducting interest or depreciation on those properties from their taxes.
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The bill would also offer incentives to investors to sell single-family rentals back to homeowners or community nonprofits and help bolster housing supply by allowing owners to continue receiving tax deductions on homes financed using low-income tax credits.
The Hill
July 11, 2023
One Weird Trick to Help Solve the U.S. Housing Crisis
In a new book, Richard Kahlenberg explains that decades of arcane zoning regulations have led to our current system of high rents, restrictions on worker mobility, and racial and economic segregation.
In These Times
July 19, 2023
Investors are buying mobile home parks. Residents and governments are pushing back
Amid an affordable housing crisis, some states are looking to help low-income residents stay in their homes by helping them purchase the land their manufactured housing sits on.
Route Fifty
July 10, 2023
It’s time to fix housing in America: Start with financing and zoning
Opinion > Finance
Financing challenges aren’t the only roadblock to homeownership. Many Americans who want to own a home are only able to rent for now. And as rents continue to climb, many of these are finding it difficult to save for a down payment in order to get on the path toward ownership. This comes against the backdrop of a national housing shortage, stemming largely from strict zoning and land-use policies that make it harder and more expensive to build new housing, which results in higher rents and puts homeownership further out of reach.
The Hill
July 10, 2023
For generations, middle-class Canadians have been sold on the promise of homeownership. The promise was always flawed. Today it’s simply broken.
. . . . .
As the promise of homeownership is denied to more and more of us, new fractures will grow, between generations, neighbours, regions and political factions
. . . . .
Like climate change, it’s the result of policy choices and behaviours that have tipped the scales toward disaster for decades.
. . . . .
There are lots of solutions, but none are silver bullets. All will take years or decades to make a difference. In the meantime, the disparity between property owners and everyone else is already eroding generational ties and stoking bitter resentment.
Maclean’s
June 15, 2023
‘Greedflation’ is replacing inflation as companies raise prices for bigger profits, report finds
“Higher interest rates haven’t stopped S&P companies, especially in the big food industry, from raising consumer prices despite reporting billions in extra net earnings and over a trillion dollars in new giveaways to wealthy investors,” said Liz Zelnick, director of economic security and corporate power at Accountable.US.
“Corporate greed is a stubborn thing and requires serious action from Congress. The Fed has not seen an adequate return on its investment in a policy that has already created fissures in the economy that could lead to recession. It’s just not worth it,” she said.
MarketWatch
June 13, 2023
“Weakness and delay in Washington, D.C., accordingly – especially in the representation of the post-production sector of the industry – has helped to fuel the present decline and will continue to hamper the industry without further change.”
EIN Newsdesk
June 6, 2023
Plunder: Private Equity’s Plan to Pillage America Hardcover – May 2, 2023
Chapter 2: Ending Homeownership as We Know it: Private Equity in Housing.
FINALLY, PRIVATE EQUITY’S foray into housing illustrates one more aspect of the industry, namely, its frequent focus on businesses that target poor people. For an industry built to make money, why target people with the least? Because poor and working-class people often lack alternatives to what they buy, and this gives private equity firms the chance to raise prices or cut quality with impunity, knowing that their customers have few alternatives. Nothing illustrates this more clearly than private equity firms’ purchase of mobile home parks.
Brendan Ballou
Publisher: PublicAffairs (May 2, 2023)
The Faircloth Amendment exacerbates our housing crisis. To build back better, it must be repealed
The Faircloth Amendment is a result of Reagan’s “welfare queen” dog whistle and the villainization of low-income communities and welfare recipients; passed as part of the late ’90s anti-welfare wave that rolled back a number of critical anti-poverty, New Deal measures. Years of intentional funding cuts to public housing led to dilapidated buildings and unsafe communities, which in turn created a low public opinion of public housing projects. Journalist Ross Barkan provides important context, writing:
Daily Kos
Wednesday, April 19, 2023 at 4:20:09p PDT
Can Rent Control Rein in Corporate Landlord Greed?
Rent control is part of a multi-pronged strategy that policymakers must carry out to address the housing affordability and homelessness crises.
LA Progressive
April 16, 2023
Mobile home parks offer refuge from California’s housing squeeze. Who’s watching them?
But when residents file a complaint against a mobile home park, each complaint is treated separately. It can become a game of Whac-A-Mole: Owners can fix one citation over a period of months while residents and the state have to start a separate process for each problem stemming from an overarching issue.
So while the state has wielded most of its enforcement powers at Stockton Park Village, its residents have endured varying degrees of filth and hazardous conditions for more than four years.
The Press Democrat / Calmatters
March 20, 2023
We Must Recognize That the Eviction Crisis Is Also a Public Health Crisis
The mental health impacts of eviction and the threat of eviction are severe for tenants.
truthout
March 13, 2023
Challenge to NY’s Rent Control Law Heads to US Supreme Court
A federal appeals court this week tossed out two lawsuits, backed by NYC landlords, that sought to challenge New York’s rent reform and rent stabilization law, passed by the state legislature in 2019.
ALM Globest.com
February 09, 2023
The hunt for yield has pushed private equity firms and professional investors into new segments of the real estate market.
In recent years, sophisticated investors have snapped up multi-family units and single-family homes. Now, corporate landlords are targeting the most cost-effective segment of the real estate market: mobile home parks.
Yahoo, AP Moneywise
January 9, 2023
California state Capitol: How your government works
But how much do you really know about how California’s state government works?
CalMatters
January 3, 2023, Sameea Kamal and Jeremia Kimelman
Data Shows Lack of Manufactured Home Financing Shuts Out Many Prospective Buyers
Expansion of federal loan programs could boost access to this path to homeownership
Pew
December 7, 2022
Is California doing enough to keep mobile home park residents safe?
The consequence? “Long gaps between inspectors’ visits to a park increase the risk that health and safety violations remain undetected and unreported,” then-State Auditor Elaine Howle wrote.
Center for Health Journalism, USC Annenberg
October 19, 2022
Residents of mobile homes are often at the mercy of big companies that own the land
ARNOLD: What these residents say they’re dealing with may be part of a much bigger problem. Millions of Americans live in mobile home parks, and many desperately need this affordable housing option. But in recent years, big companies have been buying up mobile home parks around the country.
NPR
Sept. 1, 2022
The Fight to Keep Their “Poor People’s Paradise” out of Private Equity’s Hands
Private equity buys up mobile home parks across the country and raises rent. Sans Souci residents banded together to try something different.
Mother Jones
May+June 2022 Issue
Private equity billionaires are looting the country, leaving everyday Americans to clean up the mess—and fight for the scraps.
As they’ve acquired this enormous wealth, private equity leaders have not been shy about wielding it to push rules that make them even richer.
How Private Equity Looted America
Read more from our May+June 2022 issue on vulture capitalists, their political enablers, and the working people fighting back:
- Real Estate Predators Tried to Cash In on the Pandemic. Then Tenants Fought Back.
- Everything Everywhere All at Once: How Private Equity Rules Your World
- Biden and Trump Both Trashed Private Equity’s Favorite Tax Dodge. Surprise! It’s Still Here.
- These Are Congress’ Biggest Private Equity Investors
- The Fight to Keep Their “Poor People’s Paradise” out of Private Equity’s Hands
- My Newspaper Was Gutted by Journalism’s Biggest Bogeyman
- I Started a Facebook Group for People Cut by PetSmart During Covid. It Didn’t End Well.
Mother Jones
May+June 2022 Issue
Mobile Home Residents Face Rising Displacement Threat
As investors continue to eye mobile home parks as a profitable opportunity, current residents, many elderly and low-income, face steep rent hikes and possible eviction.
Planetizen
March 30, 2022
The Suburbs Are Bleeding America Dry | Climate Town (feat. Not Just Bikes)
We’ve got to rethink housing, brotherrr!
Climate Town, YouTube
Feb. 7, 2022
Affordable but marginalized: Study provides first comprehensive look at Houston’s mobile home parks
Mobile homes are the largest source of unsubsidized affordable housing in the United States and many are within mobile home parks—unique communities that are poorly understood by planning researchers and many practitioners.
Rice University, Kinder Institute for Urban Research, Urban Edge
Oct. 7, 2021
What Happens When Investment Firms Acquire Trailer Parks
“Look for a park that’s got high occupancy and that doesn’t need a lot of investment. Take out any possible amenity you’d ever need to invest in, such as a playground or a pool that’s going to need insurance. Make sure it’s got a nice sign, and pawn off any maintenance costs onto your tenants.”
The New Yorker
March 5, 2021
Why Are Investors Buying Up Mobile Home Parks And Evicting Residents?
For millions, owning a home in a mobile home park is an affordable housing option. But some companies are buying up parks, raising fees and evicting people. And the government is helping them do it.
NPR, LAist
Sept. 3, 2021
The Shocking New Math Of Living In A Mobile Home Park
There are a lot of investors scooping up or opening new mobile home parks and charging reasonable rates. However, problems have arisen with big corporate conglomerates flooding into the industry, taking over mobile home parks and boosting rents and other fees in order to maximize their profit. They may also be tempted to skimp on maintenance.
Today, a lot of conglomerate mobile home park owners are establishing parks with homes that aren’t mobile. The parks are being designed to effectively keep residents “landlocked” once they move in.
The Steve Pomeranz Show
May 1, 2019, Tim Sheahan
Rent control and just-cause eviction policies are essential to stabilizing communities, and protecting low-income and working-class people from unaffordable rents, poor housing conditions, and no-cause evictions. The goal of this report is to investigate and challenge common arguments against rent control and just-cause evictions, particularly the misinformation that threatens the implementation of these policies. This report studies cases in Berkeley, Santa Monica, and Richmond to assess the effects of policy implementation.
Urban Habitat
January, 2018
12 myths about rent control (rent stabilization) explained
Huntington Beach Mobile Home Resident Coalition
May 15, 2022
We Need Rental Registries Now More Than Ever
Most communities lack a way of collecting real-time data on whether landlords are complying with rules. A rental registry could change that.
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Rental registries already exist in cities across the country, including Raleigh, Seattle, Minneapolis, eight cities in California, and at least 20 in Texas. The costs on the city’s end are modest. San Francisco recently estimated a $300,000 startup cost with annual costs of around $1.7 million to $3.6 million per year. Most existing registries were created only to support code enforcement activities, but a simple set of requirements could allow them to do much more.
Shelterforce
December18, 2020
When Landlords Weren’t Listening, These Tenants Went After Their Bankers Instead
Banks may be helping finance displacement, and tenants’ advocacy groups are saying enough is enough.
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“In the end, if we can force Signature to change some of their practices, that would be amazing. Anything I can do to prevent this coming to others is something that I’m interested in doing.”
May 28, 2019
Next City, The Bottom Line
Mobile Home Park Closures: The True Hidden Housing Problem?
But along with the benefits of affordability and advancing homeownership comes serious precarity. Mobile home park residents live at constant risk of eviction because they rent the land on which they park. In most states, when parks are sold or redeveloped, mass evictions can legally take place with only 30 days’ notice.
Housing Matters, Urban Institute Initiative
September 20, 2017
The Battle Between Owners and Residents of Mobile-Home Parks Across America
The fears of Buena Vista Mobile Home Park residents, who could be displaced to make room for luxury apartments, aren’t theirs alone. In many parks, residents, who often own their homes but not the land under them, are treated as second-class citizens.
Pacific Standard
Oct 18, 2013, updated May 3, 2017
Promoting Infrastructure Maintenance in Manufactured Housing Communities
Many manufactured housing communities were developed in the 1950s and so aging infrastructure and deferred maintenance are key contributors to community closures. While in operation, aging infrastructure can lead to health and safety concerns like undrinkable water, poor or no electrical service and inadequate fire protection. At the point of sale, the cost of remedying deferred maintenance can prohibit preservation efforts.
Grounded Solutions Network
October 2016
For sale: Life O’Riley Mobile Home Park
The nearly 14-acre property on the city’s south side has been closed for more than a year, following condemnation by the Ingham County Health Department for unsanitary conditions. The health department’s unprecedented move in February 2014 was prompted by complaints of raw sewage, improper sewer and water hookups and vermin.
The decision forced the immediate evacuation of more than 200 people.
Life O’Riley is owned by William Whalen’s Whalen RE Holdings of Lansing, Michigan LLC. The Westbury, New York-based company bought the property in 2009 for $610,000, county property records show.
Lansing State Journal
April 3, 2015
Sheep in Wolf’s Clothing (1998)
Richard Olney, President Cleveland’s Attorney General, explained to railroad corporation executives that the ICC was to be “a sort of barrier between the railroad corporations and the people…”
From the early days of the ICC, Charles F. Adams (later President of the Union Pacific Railroad Co.) saw what was needed to solve the railroad corporations’ problems. “What is desired…” Adams wrote, “is something having a good sound, but quite harmless, which will impress the popular mind with the idea that a great deal is being done, when, in reality, very little is intended to be done.”
DemocracyThemePark.org
Fall 1998
Coalition delivers 732,000 letters to Newsom in support of rent control
The Justice for Renters Act coalition has authored a ballot initiative that will allow local communities to expand rent control. The proposition will repeal the Costa-Hawkins Act, which limits local governments from enacting rent control on certain housing units built after 1995.
Spectrum News 1
Oct. 26, 2023
It’s a ‘tale of two housing markets’ with buyers and sellers at opposite ends, Fannie Mae CEO says
Home buyers and owners are both trapped by high rates—
“We expect the higher-mortgage-rate environment to continue to dampen housing activity and further complicate housing affordability into 2024,” Doug Duncan, chief economist and senior vice president at Fannie Mae, said in a statement.
MarketWatch
Oct. 16, 2023
Corporate Thievery in America’s Mobile Home Parks
Wall Street investors are buying low-income Americans’ homes out from under them, cutting amenities, and raising rents.—
What Sullivan and his neighbors worry about — corporate ownership takeover, creeping unaffordability, the potential for the park to be displaced by redevelopment — is happening at an accelerating rate, both in the Roaring Fork Valley and across Colorado, prompting stronger policy prescriptions from elected officials and community leaders.
The Good Men Project
Oct. 13, 2023
Organizing mobile-home owners as investors gobble up parks
Case study gathers resident sentiments about rents, rules, legislative remedies
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What Sullivan and his neighbors worry about — corporate ownership takeover, creeping unaffordability, the potential for the park to be displaced by redevelopment — is happening at an accelerating rate, both in the Roaring Fork Valley and across Colorado, prompting stronger policy prescriptions from elected officials and community leaders.
Aspen Journalism
Sept. 24, 2023
Housing: Many young adults have given up on the American Dream
The findings underscore just how much housing conditions have deteriorated for those generations entering their prime household-forming and homebuying years and how far the American Dream is out of reach — without major sacrifice or a helping hand.
Yahoo Finance
Sept. 17, 2023
How It’s Working: Laws That Help Tenants and Nonprofits Buy Buildings
Shelterforce checks in on three communities that have passed policies giving tenants and nonprofits first dibs on purchasing property. Are these policies keeping residents in their homes?
Shelterforce
Sept. 7, 2023
7 takeaways from the State of Housing in Sonoma Valley
Sonoma Valley Housing Group first came together eight years ago in an attempt to address some disturbing local trends, including foreclosures, excessive rent hikes, evictions and homelessness.
“You all know what the conditions were. They haven’t changed. They have only gotten worse,” the group wrote in a handout passed around at the meeting.
The Sonoma Index-Tribune
Sept. 3, 2023
Concord council to reconsider rent control, ‘just cause’ eviction policies
California’s AB 1482, also known as the Tenant Protection Act of 2019, already imposes limits on rent increases and provides a list of acceptable reasons for terminating a tenancy. The law aims to balance the interests of both tenants and housing providers at the state level, making additional local legislation redundant.
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The California Apartment Association has scrutinized Concord’s own rent registry report, revealing that the rate of rent increases in the city falls below the state-imposed cap. Furthermore, data shows a significant decline in owner-initiated tenancy terminations from 2021 to 2022. These figures suggest that the existing state legislation is effective and calls into question the need for more restrictive local laws.
Reuters
August 31, 2023
Mobile home park owners accused of rental price-fixing in new US lawsuit
Sept 1 (Reuters) – A group of the country’s largest corporate managers of mobile home communities and a market data provider were sued in U.S. court on Thursday for allegedly conspiring to inflate rental prices for older and low-income residents.
Reuters
Sept. 1, 2023
Dick Spotswood: Novato’s mobile park political malpractice was avoidable
The recent Novato City Council meeting was a textbook example of political malpractice.
The issue was the potential sale of the Marin Valley Mobile Country Club. The facility consists of 325 manufactured homes owned and is occupied by 410 Novato residents . They are all over age 55 and 41% have low or very low incomes.
Marin Independent Journal
August 29, 2023
Economists Support Nationwide Rent Control in Letter to Biden Admin
“All the empirical literature suggests that the basic economic story does not hold” when it comes to anti-rent control arguments, said one economist.
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Along with this shift in the acceptance of rent control among tenants and legislators, some economists believe the orthodoxy on the topic has been contradicted by research and real-world examples. The letter compares economists’ opposition to rent control to historical opposition to a minimum wage, which evolved after predictions—like wide-scale job losses—did not come to pass after it was raised. The letter argues that “the economics 101 model that predicts rent regulations will have negative effects on the housing sector is being proven wrong by empirical studies that better analyze real world dynamics.
Motherboard, Tech by Vice
August 3, 2023
Morro Bay rent control ordinance protects some tenants, but not others. Here’s how it works
Morro Bay’s rent control ordinance — which was passed in 1986 and updated more recently in 2003 — limits rent increases for mobile home parks, a key source of affordable housing in the city.
Mobile home parks can only increase rent once per year, based on a formula outlined in the city’s Mobile Home and Recreational Vehicle Park Rent Stabilization ordinance.
The Tribune
July 17, 2023
‘Right to Counsel’ ordinance: LA County moves to ensure legal services for tenants facing eviction
LOS ANGELES (CNS) — The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously to create a so-called “Right to Counsel” ordinance aimed at ensuring legal representation for eligible tenants facing eviction in unincorporated areas.
Eyewitness News, ABC 7
July 12, 2023
Why can’t we stop homelessness? 4 reasons why there’s no end in sight
The shift in tone comes after both LA and New York City recently declared a record level of homelessness, and other cities have also seen their numbers continue to climb despite considerable attention and spending to give people shelter. It’s part of a steady rise around the country since 2016, after years of successfully driving down the number of people without housing.
NPR, LAist
July 12, 20239:39 AM ET
Wall Street Landlords turn American Dream into American Nightmare
The report, “Wall Street Landlords Turns American Dream Into American Nightmare: Wall Street’s big bet on the home rental market, and the bad surprises in store for tenants, communities, and the dream of homeownership”, documents in detail Wall Street’s growing influence, and abuses, in the single family rental (SFR) industry in geographies where it has focused its efforts.
ACCE, AFR, Public Advocates
No Date Given
Corporate Landlord Behind the Curtain Recording
Eviction Lab, Housing Now, Rise Home Stories, Strategic Actions for a Just Economy
June 20, 2023
How Freddie Mac Helps Private Equity Profit From Tenant Misery
Overloaded with debt, with maintenance and repairs cut back to the bone, tenants are being bled dry to make millions for speculators—with a crucial assist from the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation.
The Nation.com
June 13, 2023
The Environmental Justice Challenge No One Is Talking About
Infrastructure needs are a focal point for many aging MHCs. Fixing septic pumps and waterline breaks, upgrading electrical service, or transitioning to clean energy is expensive and time-consuming. Piecemeal projects of various sorts drain the limited capacity of MHCs and prevent them from addressing larger infrastructure needs and tapping into funding.
Health Affairs Journal
May 30, 2023
Episode 46: Manufactured Housing (aka Mobile Homes) with Esther Sullivan
Due to a mix of public policies and social stigma, these homes are often found in manufactured housing communities, colloquially known as mobile home parks or trailer parks — and in recent years, these communities have increasingly been under threat by predatory investors or by closures, whether for redevelopment or otherwise.
UCLA Lewis Center for Regional Policy Studies
May 22, 2023
Economists Hate Rent Control. Here’s Why They’re Wrong.
There’s just one problem: This neoliberal conventional wisdom is wrong. As recent empirical work has shown, the neoclassical account’s core assumptions—one, that rent control restricts the supply of new housing; and two, that it misallocates existing housing, thereby causing an irrecoverable collective loss—fail to hold when it comes to the real world.
The American Prospect
May 16, 2023
Wall Street Is Holding a Gun to Mobile Home Residents’ Heads
In mobile home parks around the country, millions of tenants and owners are being mercilessly exploited and regularly evicted, often by giant Wall Street firms like Blackstone.
Jacobin
May 4, 2023
Six Steps to Ensuring a Strong Right to Organize for Tenants
Getting solid legal protections in place will help tenants stick up for themselves more safely and effectively.
Shelterforce
May 4, 2023
What’s holding back manufactured homes?
With this context in mind, exploring how the playing field can be leveled is crucial, as it would enable manufactured homes to compete fairly with their site-built counterparts. There are several measures that Congress, state legislators, and even banking regulators can take within their domains to make the marketplace fairer.
The Hill
May 9, 2023
Why Are Mobile Home Parks Uniquely At Risk to Climate Disasters?
In disaster after disaster, mobile home parks feature prominently. But what makes this type of housing particularly vulnerable?
Urban Institute
May 4, 2023
Rigid Zoning Rules Are Helping to Drive Up Rents in Colorado
Jurisdictions with updated regulations to allow more housing have held rents in check
Pew
April 27, 2023
‘Trapped’: How federally backed financing is making mobile homes less affordable
Low-interest loans supported by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have fueled a spree of acquisitions of mobile home parks where new owners drive up costs for longtime residents.
NBC News
April 18, 2023
More Flexible Zoning Helps Contain Rising Rents
New data from 4 jurisdictions that are allowing more housing shows sharply slowed rent growth
Pew
April 17, 2023
The Big Myth: How American Business Taught Us to Loathe Government and Love the Free Market
…Why do Americans believe in the “magic of the marketplace”?
The answer, as The Big Myth reveals: a propaganda blitz. Until the early 1900s, the U.S. government’s guiding role in economic life was largely accepted. But then business elites, trade associations, wealthy powerbrokers, and media allies combatted regulation by building a new orthodoxy: down with “big government,” up with unfettered markets. Unearthing eye-opening archival evidence, Oreskes and Conway document campaigns to rewrite textbooks, combat unions, and defend child labor. They detail the ploys that turned hardline economists Hayek and Friedman into household names, recount the libertarian roots of the Little House on the Prairie books, and tune into the General Electric-sponsored TV show that beamed free-market doctrine (and the young Ronald Reagan) to millions.
Bloomsbury Publishing
First published, February 21, 2023
Tenant Rights in the U.S.: A Modern History
Laws vary by state, but federal protections and common law are also relevant
Investopedia
March 29, 2023
Corporate Real Estate Investors Are Accelerating the Affordable Housing Crisis
Four out of five homes are unaffordable to median income earners, thanks in large part to unlisted corporate purchases.
All of this translates to a more expensive real estate for working families, as unlisted corporate purchases lower the housing supply available to thousands of households. As a result, four out of five homes are now classified as unaffordable to median income earners, up from just half a decade ago.
truthout
March 25, 2023
Why U.S. Real Estate Is So Flawed | CNBC Marathon
But experts say that several aspects of today’s mortgage market including cost, the lack of small-dollar loans and lender bias have all greatly hindered Americans from owning their own property.
But the new developments in construction are generally for high-end and luxury apartment units. Experts say the market conditions are pushing people further away from their jobs and weighing on the economy writ large.
CNBC, YouTube
January 29, 2023
From Housing Providers to Drivers of Homelessness: How the California Apartment Association’s Wall Street Leadership Spent Nearly a Quarter Billion Dollars to Block Housing Solutions
While the CAA often claims to represent their 13,000 members, the CAA’s agenda primarily serves their leadership who are some of the country’s largest Wall Street corporate landlords. The business model of these mega corporate landlords is predicated on increasing profits at all costs by raising rents, neglecting maintenance, and evicting frequently.
ACCE Institute
No date found. 2023
When Landlords Hide Behind LLCs
It’s difficult to know who owns a property because corporate landlords and investors tend to structure their business as limited liability companies, or LLCs. This type of hidden ownership is linked to deteriorating housing and a lack of accountability.
Shelterforce
August 23, 2022
Debunking stereotypes about mobile homes could make them a new face of affordable housing
Our research suggests that misguided stereotypes blind scholars and policymakers to the possibility that mobile homes can help address the affordable housing crisis and climate change. Here are some misperceptions about this widespread form of housing.
The Conversation
July 28, 2022
Corporate landlords used aggressive tactics to push out more tenants than was known
After a year-long investigation, a Congressional subcommittee says four corporate landlords were quick to push out renters during the pandemic, and filed nearly three times as many eviction actions as previously reported — almost 15,000 in all.
NPR
July 28, 2022
A manufactured home can be where the heart is
Melissa Caro, executive director of the Massachusetts Manufactured Housing Association, has seen the transformation from the old “trailer park” image to “well-planned communities that have become welcomed by cities and towns that offer a nice alternative for age 55-plus residents and families to start moving forward with home ownership.”
Boston Globe
July 21, 2022
More Americans live in manufactured housing than in public and federally subsidized rental housing combined. Of the nearly 40,000 U.S. manufactured housing communities (MHCs), more than 1,000 are resident-owned communities (ROCs), a form of cooperative ownership. Yet planning research continues to neglect MHCs and ROCs, raising questions of classism and cultural bias.
Taylor & Francis Online. Journal of the American Planning Association
June 21, 2022
The Housing Crisis in America’s Mobile Home Parks
With demand surging and rent costs rising sharply, mobile home parks are becoming unaffordable for their most vulnerable residents.
Planetizen
June 7, 2022
Developers are gobbling up mobile home parks. Can residents buy them first?
Mobile home parks have been a reliable source of affordable housing in Charlotte for decades, offering prices well below nearby apartments or homes. But a confluence of factors, including rising land prices and an influx of investors looking to make money buying parks, threaten this way of life. New reporting and data analysis from The Charlotte Observer shows how in the middle of the city’s widening affordable housing crisis, this remaining refuge has come under siege.
The Charlotte Observer
May 15, 2022
Five Reasons Why Mobile Home Parks In The United States Are Disappearing
As the need for affordable housing continues to increase, mobile home communities could be the answer as manufactured housing can be built for less than half the cost of site-built housing, but the hurdles with the supply of manufactured housing communities need to be recognized.
Forbes
Dec. 22, 2021
The Housing Market – If You Don’t Know, Now You Know | The Daily Show
Why has it become so hard to buy a home in America? If you don’t know, now you know
The Daily Show
Dec. 8. 2021
Factory-Built Housing for Affordability, Efficiency, and Resilience
In some land-lease communities, however, rents may not be sufficient to cover infrastructure maintenance and investors may not keep up with infrastructure costs, eroding the quality of life in these communities and decreasing the value of their manufactured units.52
Tenants are also vulnerable to rent increases or the sale of the land on which their homes are sited. If they cannot afford the rent or if the property is repurposed by the new owners, they may face eviction.
Theoretically, homeowners could transport their homes to a new site, but the cost of moving may be prohibitive, finding an alternative site may be difficult, and the structure may not be able to withstand a move. In these cases, homeowners may effectively be forced to abandon their homes.53
HUD User, Office of Policy Development and Research
Winter/Spring 2020
Considerations on Rent Control
My name is J. W. Mason. I have a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, I am an assistant professor of economics at John Jay College of the City University of New York, and I am a Fellow at the Rosevelt Institute.
Contrary to the predictions of the simple supply-and-demand model, none of these studies have found evidence that introducing or strengthening rent regulations reduces new housing construction, or that eliminating rent regulation increases construction. Most of these studies do, however, find that rent control is effective at holding down rents.
The main conclusions from this literature are, first, that rent regulation is effective in limiting rent increases, although how effective it is depends on the specifics of the law. Vacancy decontrol in particular may significantly weaken rent control. Second, there is no evidence that rent regulations reduce the overall supply of housing. They, may, however, reduce the supply of rental housing if it is easy for landlords to convert apartments to condominiums or other non-rental uses. This suggests that limitations on these kinds of conversions may be worth exploring. Third, in addition to their effect on the overall level of rents, rent regulations also play an important role in promoting neighborhood stability and protecting long-term tenants.
Testimony to New Jersey City city council on rent control
November 2021
Corporate crime and non-punishment
The legal system makes it easy for big businesses that break the law to escape prosecution and evade reform. There is a better way — and a legal scholar tells us exactly how it could work.
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This is a result of the super-lenient corporate criminal justice system that has evolved. The basic established principles of corporate criminal law hold corporations responsible for employees’ actions. But criminal courtrooms are dangerous places for corporations to find themselves. The Department of Justice wants to avoid driving another massive company out of business. For example, the shuttering of accounting firm Arthur Andersen after the Enron prosecutions was a lightning-rod event, one the DOJ wants to avoid repeating. So the DOJ strives to keep large corporate criminals out of courtrooms.
Knowable Magazine
June 18, 2020
Cost and Quality: Breaking Down the Stigma of Manufactured Housing
One of the biggest challenges to mainstreaming the use of manufactured housing may be, ironically, its cost. Long recognized as affordable when compared to site-built homes, manufactured housing’s lower costs come at a price. That price is the ongoing stigma that many communities and residents hold against manufactured housing.
Prosperity Now
October 16, 2019
Using a 1994 law change, we exploit quasi-experimental variation in the assignment of rent control in San Francisco to study its impacts on tenants and landlords. Leveraging new data tracking individuals’ migration, we find rent control limits renters’ mobility by 20 percent and lowers displacement from San Francisco. Landlords treated by rent control reduce rental housing supplies by 15 percent by selling to owner-occupants and redeveloping buildings. Thus, while rent control prevents displacement of incumbent renters in the short run, the lost rental housing supply likely drove up market rents in the long run, ultimately undermining the goals of the law.
Stanford Business
Sept., 2019
Nine facts about state and local policy
Policy debates often focus only on major decisions made in Washington, DC. But for many Americans, the decisions made much closer to home have just as large, if not larger, effects on day-to-day life.
Brookings
Brookings, Jan 31, 2019 Ryan Nunn, Jana Parsons, and Jay Shambaugh
Opening the Door for Rent Control
Executive Summary: California is at a tipping point; both the government and private market are failing to meet the needs of a vast majority of the state’s 17.5 million renters. Skyrocketing rents, intensifying threats of eviction, and ongoing displacement are all part of a broader crisis of widening inequality and structural exclusion that is testing our values and identity as a state. The consequences are far-reaching: people are being pushed out of their communities, into homelessness, and away from jobs and opportunity. As a state, we face health, environmental, economic, and societal costs that can last generations. The extent of these long-term harms will be determined in large part by how we respond today. This moment requires that local governments have the ability to enact immediate solutions to protect tenants from unfair rent increases as well as wholesale evictions.
Othering and Belonging Institute
Sept., 2018
California Mobile Home Park Residents Face Barriers to Clean Water
Study finds more frequent service cuts and dirtier water in trailer parks.
Circle of Blue
October 13, 2017
America’s trailer parks: the residents may be poor but the owners are getting rich
It’s an unusual but potentially lucrative investment: billionaire Warren Buffett is heavily invested, and his and others’ success is prompting ordinary people to attend Mobile Home University, a ‘boot camp’ in trailer park ownership
The Guardian
May 3, 2015
California’s affordable mobile home parks vanishing
“Affordable housing is like the spotted owl or the tiger. If we don’t go out of our way to save what we have, then we’ll lose it forever,” said Winter Dellenbach, founder of the local community group Friends of Buena Vista.
In some cases, entire mobile home parks have been sold and then shuttered. In other instances, mobile home residents were gradually pushed out.
Peninsula Press
March 11, 2015
Study Finds U.S. Manufactured-Home Owners Face ‘Quasi-Homelessness’
But a new study of trailer park residents in four states finds that, rather than being a step in the right direction, manufactured-home ownership in a privately owned park can be a trap—a declining and often dangerous structure that lacks many of the social benefits of small town life and leaves its owners in a state of “quasi-homelessness,” ever vulnerable to losing their home.
Population Reference Bureau
Oct. 18, 2004
