'We're all afraid': Massive rent increases hit mobile homes

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

For nearly 30 years, Virginia Rubio has lived in a trailer park in Forks, Wash., where monthly rent teeters around $350. Now it’s shooting up to $1,000.

Rubio, a retired home-care aide who lives on food stamps and $860 in Social Security each month, says there’s no way to make the math work. She owns the mobile home she shares with her partner and adult daughter but will soon have to give that up if she can’t afford to rent the plot of land underneath it.

“With an increase like this, I don’t know what we can do," said Rubio, who is 75. "We’re all afraid of losing our homes.”

Surging home prices and rents are cascading down to the country’s mobile home parks, where heightened demand, low supply and an increase in corporate owners is driving up monthly costs for low-income residents with few alternatives. At the same time, private-equity firms and developers are often circling nearby, looking to buy up such properties and turn them into more lucrative ventures, including timeshare resorts, wedding venues and condominiums.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2022/06/06/mobile-manufactured-home-rents-rising/

Predatory capitalism.

[CurtEastPoint]

1. Yep. Vultures, leeches, GDMFSOBs may they suffer for eternity for doing this shit to the least among

us.

[SharonAnn]

24. American Oligarchs.

[AntivaxHunters]

2. This shouldn't be happening

and nobody should be getting only $800 odd dollars a month for disability.

[Skittles]

4. that's regular SS

the disability amount for the other gal is $1900

[Haggard Celine]

5. I think she's just getting a regular Social Security check.

She's 75, so I don't think she's on disability.

[shrike3]

7. I know someone who gets $700 per ss check.

Why he gets that little is another story, but it's not disability.

[MOMFUDSKI]

8. Many women now collecting SS

worked thru the years of low pay for women. Now they bear the brunt of meager earnings in their old age. Simple fact.

[shrike3]

14. This particular fellow was paid in cash for years. Did not report it.

I know women in the predicament you describe, yes.

[MichMan]

28. He sure stuck it to the "man" didn't he ?

[Demobrat]

38. I know a few people who did this.

Didn’t pay income taxes or SS. Spent everything.
What do you even say?

[MichMan]

41. My wife had an uncle like that

Other family members kept lining him up with pretty decent jobs and he would inevitably get mad at the boss and quit, get fired for not showing up, or being too hungover.

Years later he was always complaining how hard he worked his entire life and how the government screwed over people like him. His brothers and nephews, who were the ones that tried to help him, would get so angry that they threatened to punch him in the nose every time he started spouting off.

[shrike3]

55. What can you say? Not much.

[OhNo-Really]

30. And who new you had to be married 20 years

To get husbands SS

Tell your daughters.

[MissB]

31. My mother recently lost her third husband

She was married to her first (my dad) for 25 years. Her third marriage lasted not quite 20 years. When he died, she discovered that she could claim on my dad’s SS.

She suddenly has more money each month than she’s had for years.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

32. Umm, no. One year of marriage is good enough.

[mnhtnbb]

33. Not so.

https://www.ssa.gov/benefits/retirement/planner/applying7.html#h2


If divorced, there is a requirement that the marriage must have lasted 10 years or more to claim spousal benefits.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

48. But if you are still married, one year is all it takes.

I know all about the married for ten years, divorced for two, both be old enough as I benefitted from it.

I turned 66 shortly after my ex turned 62, and was able to collect on his account until I turned 70, when I started collecting my own SS. And the nice people at SS let me know when i would be switching to my own account, which was several hundred dollars more. He's still not yet 70, not yet collecting his own SS. It would be in my financial best interest for him to die as soon as he turns 70, as then I would be one of his two widows, now collect 100% of his SS amount which would again be several hundred dollars a month more. Alas, he is likely to outlive me as he's younger and his family tends to live well into their 90s.

[OhNo-Really]

59. True. That was a typo.

[shrike3]

52. Wow. I did not know that.

I've been married almost twenty-six years, so it's not an issue for me, but I did not know there was a twenty year minimum.

[OhNo-Really]

60. It was a typo. If divorced, you can't get SS

For a spouse unless married for 10 years.

That leaves a lot of women hard up upon retirement

[OhNo-Really]

58. Oops. 10 years not 20

[Haggard Celine]

9. People on Social Security don't get much.

It's just about impossible to live off of a Social Security check. They need to raise the amount people get, by a lot. I'm on disability and I don't get much either, but it's a good bit more than $700.

Maybe we need to have a universal income, enough that people can pay their bills and buy food. Something needs to be done about the outrageous cost of rent, too, but it's unlikely that Congress will act. We have a lot of our population who are dirt poor, and it's stressful as hell to always be on the verge of homelessness. It's shameful.

That's why a lot of people voted for Trump in 2016. He said he would shake up Washington, and that appealed to people who are barely getting by. They're desperate, and Trump's rhetoric gave them hope. They thought they had nothing to lose by voting for that lunatic. Something needs to be done or we are going to have a lot more unrest in this country.

[MarcA]

10. +1000 n/t

[shrike3]

16. My friend worked cash jobs for years. Did not realize what this would mean for retirement.

I think UBI would be a good idea.

[MichMan]

29. Cheated from the system and also himself

I'm not very sympathetic towards tax evaders unfortunately

[shrike3]

51. What can I say? He's reaping what he sowed now.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

37. How about actually paying into SS?

I have known several people who worked for cash most of their lives, and were very proud they'd avoided taxes. Surprise, surprise, at retirement they'd get almost no Social Security. I am not sympathetic. You get what you pay for.

[alphafemale]

43. Like expectig to be able to go to a gym or club you don't pay dues to

Just because you live nearby

[shrike3]

50. Yeah, that's this guy's problem. He just didn't realize what it would mean for him when he got old.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

34. Social Security was NEVER intended to be anyone's

entire income in retirement. It was expected to be part of a "three legged stool", which would include Social Security, a pension, and savings. For the pension substitute a 401k these days. But the formula is still valid.

Those who blithely expect SS will pay for everything in retirement are idiots, and have never paid attention.

I'm retired, collecting SS, a small pension, and payouts from savings. Oddly enough, my SS amount is almost exactly one third of my total income.

[Haggard Celine]

46. There are a lot of people who work all their lives

and don't get pensions and their 401K doesn't add up to much. They often live hand to mouth even in the years they work because the cost of living is so much. What about them? There are many who never get to retire, not until they get so sick that they can't work anymore.

Maybe you don't know very many people like that, but I do, and it's a pretty sad existence. I don't really give a shit whether Social Security was intended to be someone's entire income or not. Our economy has created this situation for a lot of people and they need more help to have stability in their old age. People who work all their lives shouldn't have to live in abject poverty when they too old and sick to work anymore. It's just wrong.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

49. Many people simply spend all of their income

and save almost nothing.

I have been relatively poor much of my life and learned to live frugally. Right now, in retirement, I actually have more income than I ever had when younger.

And you should give a shit that Social Security was never intended to be someone's entire income. Because it's still incumbent on people to save something. Pensions were never universal. At their peak fewer than half of workers were covered. Often you had to work at least 20 years to get the pension. If you left one day shy of that 20 years, or if they fired you at that point, no pension. What's vastly better about 401k plans is that the money belongs to the worker, and often there are contributions by the employer. But a lot of people can't be bothered to enroll and at least get the matching amount, and then weep copiously that Social Security isn't enough to live on. Surprise, surprise. It's not breaking news that you really need to contribute to your own retirement.

[Haggard Celine]

53. While it is true that people

should prepare for retirement, it can be really hard to do when it costs everything you make just to get by. They’re raising rents at trailer parks, for God’s sake!

It’s disgusting that people can’t save a dime because the bills are so high. It used to be that if you lived frugally, you could put away something, but it’s gotten to where it takes everything you make to get by. When your rent is $1200 and you’re spending about $400 on food every month, not to mention the other bills, and you have a job with mediocre pay, what can you save? People should always take advantage of their company’s 401K contribution if they offer it, but that won’t go very far after retirement.

It’s no wonder we have so many people living in vans all over the country. That’s all they can afford since they can’t pay the outrageous rents the landlords demand. It’s getting to be impossible for a lot of people to live a decent life in this country. And it’s only going to get worse until the government starts doing something about it. It’s a dire situation for a large number of Americans, and it’s going to take some big steps to keep these people from living like the Okies in “The Grapes of Wrath.”

[xmas74]

54. If you don't have 40 quarters of employment

You might not qualify for regular SS. You could still qualify for disability

[XanaDUer2]

3. This is terrible

What can be done? Trailer parks were a decent, safe, affordable place for people to live. The trailer parks in this area are now gone. Rent is insane here. This is SE NC

[towerbum]

21. 1b1bath apt. in tampa is 1900. a month ! daughter lives down there !

she's leaveing Florida monday !

[Sympthsical]

6. Read "Eviction" by Matthew Desmond not too long ago

Won the Pulitzer and absolutely worth the read.

There's a whole section about mobile parks and includes management and corporate. The whole system is set up to screw people.

[SYFROYH]

19. Yes it is. I did a stint for court ordered mediations

And I saw way too many people get screwed with rent and liens at mobile parks.

[Johnny2X2X]

23. Yup

Different rules for mobile home parks. They’re allowed to raise rent easier. They’ve been bundling investments into mobile home parks for the last several years.

[roamer65]

11. The criminalization of poverty.

Another hallmark of fascism. Raise rents sky high, then evict them and dump them on the streets…where they are subject to further criminalization.

[MarcA]

12. Increasing rent simply for greed should be prevented.

I can see the owner having to charge more if their expenses are going up but not
private equity-like "investors". Also, with regards to property taxes, restrictions on increase should be the same as with home owners as this is their primary residence.

[LiberatedUSA]

13. John Oliver has an episode of his show on exactly this:

[shrike3]

17. This was excellent. n/t

[moondust]

15. One predator I'm aware of.

May 2019 in Iowa:

Orem, Utah-based Havenpark Capital owns more than 25 mobile home communities across the country and has been expanding rapidly, promising high-yield returns to investors “without the inconvenience of directly owning and operating the property.”
~
The company bought Midwest Country Estates in Waukee and Golf View Mobile Home Park in North Liberty last month, and immediately announced plans to raise standard lot rents 69% and 58% respectively by July 1.

At West Branch Village and Sunrise Mobile Homes near Iowa City, the company notified residents it's raising rents 20% to 33% by the same date.
~
The Better Business Bureau gives the company an “F” rating after several complaints alleging overcharging.
~
https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/2019/05/05/mobile-home-tenants-wary-history-complaints-havenpark-capital-partners-waukee-north-liberty-iowa-ia/3640106002/

May 2022 in Billings, Montana:

~
“They’re making it so the people that live here can’t afford to follow their fucking rules, and then they’re gonna get evicted,” he says. “They’re gonna get evicted, and they’re gonna bring more people in.”
~
“It’s just big-wig fucking people coming in and destroying these fucking small-town communities, kicking all of us people that can’t afford anything out, so they can fucking bring in more fucking people with more money,” he says.
~
“Thanks corporate America, making this country unlivable in the quest for more profits!” another said.
~
https://www.dailydot.com/irl/trailer-park-rules-havenpark-communities/

[pandr32]

18. The homeless problem is growing

What is to become of all these people?

[SunSeeker]

26. That's the Republican Healthcare Plan as well. nt

[jmbar2]

22. Some residents are banding together to purchase their parks

It has been done in a few places here in Oregon, in Austin, and perhaps others.

Here is a document - long, about 80 pages - that explains how that can be done.

https://prosperitynow.org/sites/default/files/PDFs/Promoting_Resident_Ownership_of_Communities.pdf

There is a nonprofit dedicated to helping communities become resident-owned. If you know anyone at risk, please give them this information.

https://www.rocusa.org/

[Mr. Evil]

25. This country should be renamed,

Humpty Dumpty of America. It's that broken.

[Gaugamela]

27. This is a signal of imminent societal collapse. One among many.

If it were just one thing, we could absorb it. But it’s everywhere. It’s like what Hemingway said about bankruptcy: it happened at first gradually, then all at once.

[ripcord]

35. I am so glad I bought the land to put my mobile on

I may live in the desert but I only paid $70k for 5 acres in California.

[shrike3]

56. That'd be the only way to do it. Put it on land you own.

A relative by marriage did that; put a manufactured home on a lot. Place was pretty comfortable. Though he had a pension and could avoid upkeep and taxes.

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

36. Trailer parks are terrible.

When I first moved to my current location, Santa Fe, NM, I took a temp job at a local trailer park. It was in the office, and I mostly collected rent payments from the residents. I was appalled at what they were paying. Between the space rental, and the payment for the trailer itself, they were paying double or more than I was for a two bedroom apartment. I was appalled.

I think people buy mobile homes thinking it's a good solution to the rising cost of rents, but have no clue what it will cost to rent a space in a mobile home park. Or to buy land where they can put the mobile home.

What most frustrates me is that people have no clue about the real costs, in this case of a space in a mobile home park, and have no way of researching this.

[Johnny2X2X]

47. It's absolutely sick what they're doing to renters right now

Have friends who lived in a trailer, their rent was $650 and they owned the trailer out right. One's son bought them a house to live in and they sold their trailer to other friends. Now that park raised rents to $950 a month and are saying it's going up again next year.

There are nice trailer parks. Many people who live in them are retired people. They're squeezing the poor and the old, it's just plain wrong.

My sister rents a townhouse with her two teenaged daughters. Her rent was $1300 several years ago, it's now $1850 and she just got told it's going up to $2050 when her current lease is up in September. She has no idea what she's going to do, but she cannot afford the new rent. She's in trouble and behind on bills, she can't afford a house, and she can't afford to move, she's stuck.

[shrike3]

57. A manufactured home community had one of its units for sale at $42,000.

I wasn't home-shopping but thought there had to be a catch, so I looked up the lot rent. $900 a month. And that was a few years ago, so you know it had to have gone up.

[Old Crank]

39. Been going on for years

When the parks were put in and developed the land was cheap and this was a way to make money from the acerage. Now cities and towns have grown up around them. There are no champions in city hall because they need developer funds for campaigns.
People who have been there for years can't afford t he thousands it would cost to move their home which is essentially worthless, and to where?

[womanofthehills]

40. In Albuquerque, they are kicking long time rental tenants out near downtown for B&B's

and turning some apartments into assisted living so the can realty make big bucks. Where are these people going to live? Most people that I know who rent, have had their apartments bought by new management and rents raised. I asked my daughter what she got in return for raised rent - she said they put in a gym and upgraded the pool. So basically, they put in a gym to raise everyone’s rent by $200. Everyone who doesn’t own their own home or lot, might just have to advertise for roommates or be out on the streets.

[GoodRaisin]

42. If there is a Hell it's going to fill up fast as this generation of

“business people” die off.

[alphafemale]

44. And many of those very old mobile homes could not be moved

They would probably fall apart on the highway.

[gulliver]

45. Housing, nutrition, health, education, climate, jobs, safety

These are issues that affect a large majority of people. Issues that affect a large majority of people come first and foremost. They deserve nearly all of our attention. Other issues should get less attention, depending on the number of people affected and the degree to which they are affected. Some issues that affect nearly no one should get nearly no attention.

Voting should count. If you vote, your issues matter.

Smart ideas, expressed convincingly to majorities should be amplified. Dumb ideas expressed unconvincingly to the media should be attenuated without a second thought and actively squelched.