Mobile Home Owners Fear Evictions as Pandemic Protections End

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

For more than two decades, Kimberly Burnworth has lived in a mobile home in rural West Virginia on a tract her grandfather acquired in the 1960s. A single mother, Burnworth is paid by the government to be a caregiver to her 11-year-old son, David, who has muscular dystrophy.

Between food, medicines and a $61,000 mortgage, money is a constant worry. Increasingly, Burnworth is also worried she will be evicted. She has not made a mortgage payment in nearly two years after losing her job. The lender — 21st Mortgage, a company controlled by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway — is trying to foreclose on her home. And the federal moratorium on evictions put in place during the pandemic is ending this month.

In May, a local judge bought Burnworth some time when he temporarily stopped 21st Mortgage from foreclosing and delayed a trial until this fall. She has the money to restart her mortgage payments of $507 a month, she said, but cannot afford the $14,900 the company also wants for the missed payments.

-snip-

An estimated 22 million people in the United States live in mobile homes, which have evolved over the decades from travel trailers to structures that can be delivered by a truck. Usually containing one or two bedrooms, and officially known in the industry as manufactured housing, they have long been pitched as affordable homeownership to the working poor, people on fixed incomes and retirees.

But banks will not often lend to mobile home owners, partly because the loan amounts are too small to be profitable and because the federal government does not typically guarantee those mortgages. Instead, the mobile home financing market is dominated by five lenders, including 21st Mortgage and Vanderbilt Mortgage — two units of Clayton Homes, a Berkshire Hathaway business.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/mobile-home-owners-fear-evictions-121321967.html

[wcmagumba]

1. Plus, many "mobile" homes, particulary as they age...

are no longer able to be moved and even if they could physically be relocated, it is cost prohibitive for a lower income resident to pay for moving and insurance costs. In addition, many mobile home parks (or even an owner purchased lot in some neighborhoods) will not allow (by zoning or other) an older mobile home (sometimes only a few years old) to be placed in the park or on the lot. The result of this is (imo) sort of a scam in terminology, you buy a new or used "mobile" home and place it in a park or on a lot and then you are stuck and at the mercy of rising lot rental costs in a park, or stuck on your own lot, with a mortgage on the lot and a home quickly decreasing in value. Trust me, I've been there...This is all on top of the "eviction by covid" issue...

[csziggy]

2. Yes, we lived in a mobile home for over thirty years

While the home was in good condition - we'd done a lot of maintenance and improvements over the years - it was estimated to be worth about $5000. Cost to move the two sections of the doublewide were about $3-5000 for each side, so moving it would cost more than it was worth. In fact, if we'd trashed it, it would have cost about the same to haul the sections to the dump!

We ended up giving it to a family who had been burned out of their house. They'd owned the house and lot free and clear for thirty or more years, but could not afford to replace the house. Four generations were living in a broken down RV so they really needed a place to live.

The man who hooked us up with them (he knew them through church) also found a mobile home mover who did the job at a discount.

The house is set up on their lot and has been there since 2008 when we gave it to them. The RV is still there - I think part of the family is still living in it.

Oh, the article linked in the OP says:

An estimated 22 million people in the United States live in mobile homes, which have evolved over the decades from travel trailers to structures that can be delivered by a truck. Usually containing one or two bedrooms, and officially known in the industry as manufactured housing, they have long been pitched as affordable homeownership to the working poor, people on fixed incomes and retirees.

Mobile or manufactured homes can be much larger than "one of two bedrooms" - ours was 1680 sq. ft with three bedrooms, a large living/dining room, two bathrooms, and a den. Some are three sections, with more bedrooms.

[wcmagumba]

3. Good for your generosity...I was moving to another state for family reasons...

and found I could not even give my 40 year old home away, it was in a decent park but the monthly rental payments had continually risen to outrageous levels (imo and budget). The small single wide needed some repairs, I had repaired what I could but the home could not safely be moved. I ended up giving it to the park (who did repairs and rented out the homes so they probably made money on mine) in lieu of last month's rent...

[csziggy]

4. There used to be several mobile home parks around here that rented out old houses

Mostly to students and minimum wage workers. Some of the houses were probably below standards for rentals - one of my husband's friends lived in one that was eventually condemned because the floor was rotten under the toilet.

There was a park that was upscale when I first came to town. It only allowed double wides to be moved in and was originally for retirees. As the residents moved into assisted living or died, the homes reverted to the park. Now it is mostly rentals but the park doesn't really maintain them so the whole place is degrading badly.

Eventually the land will sold and the residents will be SOL. If they own their home, they will probably lose it and the rest will have to find another cheap place to live. That is what has been happening to mobile home parks all over Florida. Whiel there is protection under law for condo owners and renters, there is protection for those who live in mobile home parks.

[SWBTATTReg]

6. SOL? Also, I assume that you mean that there is NO protection for those who live in a

MH park? Thanks for any clarification...take care!

[csziggy]

8. SOL _ Shit Out of Luck

No protection at all, except some pretty weak landlord/tenant laws.

[SWBTATTReg]

9. Thanks! I love the SOL acronym ... yes, and I agree w/ the weak tenant laws, always seem

to favor the business end of the business (landlords) and not give any quarter to the renters. A disgrace if you ask me.

[csziggy]

12. Back when most of the people I kew living in MH were students

They didn't want to push the landlords too much. It was too easy for the landlords to just junk the MH instead of doing maintenance. A lot of the landlords were just trying to take in enough money to pay property taxes until the property was sold for development, either as a commercial property or subdivision. But the laws are pretty weak.

[SWBTATTReg]

13. Well, a different concept of a mobile home park, very transitional in nature, w/ the students

moving in/moving out twice a year.

We had a mobile home park that people actually lived in for multiple years, a different type of client as opposed to students, and the other type of mobile home park we had was for vacationing folks, who stayed for the one to two weeks they were there, fishing or hunting.

I don't blame them for not pushing on the landlords too much (the students), the MHs can be expensive to maintain and/or fix, and the rents are usually lower than if in a regular home. We were always glad that end of season was upon us, for that's when we did maint. work/replace old flooring, repaired various things, etc.

[csziggy]

15. All those parks had been nice at one point

But with the houses getting old the original owners dying and homes simply abandoned in place, the park owners were just bidding time. That's when they were mostly left to students, who of course, didn't help matters.

[SWBTATTReg]

5. You are so nice! I used to sell MHs (mobile homes) and also had mobile homes, to rent and ...

live in, at our mobile home park near a state park in MO. The people that lived in them were nice, and the people that rented them (by the weekends) too, were so nice. They are a home, no matter what they are or where they are. My mom didn't really like them, but I did, and thought the world of them. Ironic, considering that my two sisters lived in a mobile home at one time (I had the two of their mobile homes in my park, to rent for weekends).

The manufacturing of mobile homes is much better now, when compared to how they were constructed back in the early 70s, 80s. If kept up, they last for a long time too. We coated the roofs occasionally, and built nice decks around them (the front and back entrances) and if one were to travel in localities in CA, FL, and other points, you'll find plenty of mobile home parks where tons of people lived in these communities.

I will always have a fondness for mobile homes, didn't knock them one bit, although my Mom did, and my brother, when he needed a place to live (an alcoholic), mocked the offer and refused to live in one. There are people out there in the world that will mock these homes, and it's a shame, considering that 22 million people live in these types of homes. Nothing at all, to mock or sneeze at.

Again, my sincere appreciation at what you did, in kindly offering your MH for a family in need, especially after a fire burned out their home, a tragic event that I don't think anyone recovers from (my experience w/ my Mom and Dad, whose home burned (and thank god, they got out okay). You are a gem in my eyes.

[csziggy]

10. I always thought mobile homes were a good alternative

I lived in one while I was in college - bought a used MH for $2000, paid $35 a month rent for the lot for two years, sold the house for $1000 after I graduated and moved on. I couldn't have lived by myself that cheaply any other way.

When we bought this place, we planned to build a house eventually but needed to be out here quickly to supervise the farm. For $35,000 we bought a top of the line MH and six weeks after we ordered it, it was set up and we were moving in.

That house went through several hurricanes with no damage. We replaced most of the flooring, painted most of the walls, put a metal roof on it, Hardie board siding, remodeled the master bath and the kitchen. The next step would have been replacing all the water lines - they were that grey plastic stuff that had lawsuit settlements to reimburse people for them leaking.

The family that got it, the husband and father both worked at the university doing plumbing so I knew it would not be the huge expense for them that it would have been for us. We warned them and they were fine with it.

I was happy to see that house that had served us so well go to a family that could use it. Sometimes we drive by it and it is still well maintained and we see the people in the yard. It makes me happy.

[SWBTATTReg]

11. Wonderful!

[SWBTATTReg]

7. Sad to hear that covid is used for this type of excuse. I assume that they're evicted...

due to lack of payment(s), on either the lot rent, and/or the MH itself? How did covid enter into the picture?

Sometimes the MH park had an arrangement w/ a mover (the ones I dealt w/ did), especially viable if enough moves occur during the life of the agreement. My situation was different, as I rented mobile homes, and I worked for the owner of the park via his mobile home lot, where he sold mobile homes. Kind of a vertical business you might say. They were lucky, for they didn't really have to follow a typical city's code (they were outside city limits). Some cities do outlaw them/the mobile homes.

[onethatcares]

14. here in sunny West Central Floriduh

where ya gonna move them to? The existing parks are already full of the buildings. I've wondered how you pull a 55 ft x 12 ft out from between two other of the same dimensions, up a park road, around a few corners, down a busy highway.

Most older models have screen rooms attached along with a shed.

The resident owned parks are facing higher maint fees while the developers are licking their chops waiting to grab the land at bargain basement prices.

This would be in the Largo/Seminole areas of Pinellas county.