Private Equity Firms Increasingly Control Mobile Home Parks Nationwide — Hiking Rents, Cutting Services, and Trapping Low-Income Residents
As private equity investors and real estate speculators greedily fanned the flames of the increasing commodification of one of life’s most basic necessities, shelter, their focus remained largely on traditional homes and apartments.
While housing became increasingly unaffordable for the average American, people living in manufactured homes seemed to pass largely beneath the notice of the robber barons gobbling up everything else they could get their hands on. For years, one of the only reliable places to find an affordable, stable place to live has been inside the trailer park. But now, even that is at risk.
The Lure of the Trailer Park
Mobile homes can provide a sense of security for low-income families, as they offer a way to buy the roof over their heads without the expense of a traditional home. This can seem like a very appealing option to someone with a history of eviction from rentals, but the truth is that unless you own the land the trailer is sited on, you’re not out of the woods yet.
Up until recently, lot rent, or the money you pay to secure your “parking space” within the trailer park, has been kept to a reasonable level, with the majority of the funds used to cover communal expenses like landscaping, sewer hookups, and other services that keep the whole place running smoothly. It was common for parks to be more of a “mom and pop” style business, with landlords known to tenants and frequently seen on-site, if not living there themselves.
Of course, exploitation still happened, and making a living by ransoming another person’s human rights is never going to be completely rosy. Still, the way things are going now makes that picture look positively quaint.
Nowhere Else To Go
Private equity firms are increasingly setting their sights on acquiring mobile home parks, and they now own the majority of them in America. Speculators see them as low-risk, high-reward investments, recognizing that they can charge whatever they want in lot rent and other fees, and very few of their residents will be able to leave.
This is the final move in private equity’s torturous chess game against those of us who have to actually work for a living. They’ve made every other type of housing so unaffordable that there’s nowhere left that people living in manufactured homes can afford to move to. They have to either come up with some way of paying the increasing fees charged by these morally bankrupt corporations or face homelessness.
And since the term “mobile home” is a bit of a misnomer, families priced out of the parks face a difficult choice. They can shell out for the trailer to be relocated somewhere else and hope that that land isn’t bought up by the same company or an even more evil one down the line, or they can try to trick another unsuspecting family into buying out their place. It’s a hard sell, and it often comes with a tight time limit. If you can’t do either, you may end up forfeiting the trailer you own free and clear just because you can’t afford to keep funding the greed of the company that owns the land it sits on.
Every Accusation is a Confession
Let’s take a look at what happens after a mobile home park is bought out by private equity.
First of all, rents and fees will be going up. Maybe all at once, or maybe little by little. They may promise exciting new features and benefits residents will get for their money, but the most you’re likely to see is a new website, a useless app, and a shiny new sign out front.
Next, the quantity and quality of services will go down. Private equity wants one thing: to maximize its profits. That means that the costs you pay must go up while the goods and services you receive will be cut in every way they can think of. The one cost that can never be cut is the CEO’s salary and bonuses, of course.
You will likely see an increase in churn among your neighbors. People will move on or be evicted when they can no longer afford the cost, and new faces may appear to start the cycle anew. Evictions will become common even if they never were before. Private equity is not moved by the same sob stories that could sway a mom-and-pop landlord. The only thing it cares about is profits.
This cycle will repeat until it can’t anymore – either because it’s already made everyone homeless, legislation has put a stop to these unethical business practices, or the people have organized enough to simply refuse to comply.
So the corporate overlords are raising prices and cutting services- essentially getting more for doing less and extracting wealth at an alarming rate. Yet, we’re supposed to believe that it’s poor people who are lazy, who don’t want to work, and who would become a drain on society the first opportunity they get? Every accusation from this set is a confession.
What Can We Do?
Luckily, we outnumber them by a lot. And there is strength in numbers. Plenty of people are already fighting back against private equity, and it’s not too late to join them.
Mobile home residents in communities across the country are organizing into tenant associations to resist private equity and maintain collective control of their homes. With the help of nonprofits, several communities have been able to pool funds and buy their mobile home parks collectively, ensuring that private equity will never get their hands on the homes in their neighborhoods.
This is something that we can all get involved with. If you’re a renter of any kind, you can join or start a tenant association to protect your rights and the rights of your neighbors. And if you own assets of any kind, whether it be a mobile home park or your family home, you can do your part by abiding by a simple vow: never sell to private equity!