At the end of the housing bubble, many Americans lost their homes when mobile home parks were cleared out to make room for speculative single-family site built real estate development.

The latest example is reported in Salt Lake City, where the Meadows Mobile Home Park in Cottonwood Heights, Utah, was cleared to make way for redevelopment.  The park had 150 slabs.  The developer intended to build 29 “mansions” on the land.

Delaware Manufactured Homeowners Association director Ed Speraw is quoted, making the oft-spoken point that “manufactured housing is the largest source of (more…)

The future of a large senior citizens mobile home park in California is in play right now, its residents and owners unable to settle a dispute over the “fair” price for lot rents in the community.

Besaro Mobile Home Park in Fremont, California has 236 spaces.  The park is only for residents age 55 and older.  The park is under a rent control agreement for Alameda County that limits rent increases to 3 percent per year. Rents currently average about $669 per month.  The owners propose to raise rents to $895 per month – an increase of about 33 percent.  For some residents who are grandfathered in at lower rents, though, the increases could be as high as 49 percent.   At these prices, rents are relatively low.  (more…)

US District Court Judge Stephen Larson believes that poor communication is reducing the likelihood that Duroville, a large mobile home park in California, can stay open.

Duroville houses several thousand farmworkers in the Coachella Valley. There are several hundred mobile homes on the site, which is within land managed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs but owned by an private landlord, Harvey Duro.

Since last year, the park has been managed by an outside group, the Housing Renaissance Fund. HRF specializes in bringing capital and other resources to revitalizing distressed properties. The park received a $3 million loan to make changes.

The park consists of 40 acres, on the Torres-Martinez Desert Cahuilla Indian Reservation.  That is part of the problem and part of the explanation for why Duroville exists.  Outside of the scope of authority of local housing agencies, those most experienced and informed about how to enforce minimum housing standards are prevented from acting.  Moreover, since many are illegal, the residents are not too forthcoming with officials about their housing problems.

Federal Intervention

The U.S. Attorney’s office sought to close the park in April. Larson ruled against that. He has given the park’s owners until August 21st to document improvement on at least 14 of 21 objectives that he outlined in that earlier statement.

A mosquito abatement program has been recognized as one of those needs. Progress in that goal is one of the pieces of evidence that Larson seeks.

This week, Larson set a December 16th, 2008 date for a trial, in the event that papers are not produced to document improvements made in the park to put it back into compliance with minimum housing standards.

A Contentious Place

The park is the object of a lot of debate. Many people have strong feels about minimum housing standards. Many reports talk about the low quality of the environment in the park – from ponds of untreated sewage, to electrical equipment that is unsafe, to dogs that are not restrained.

Duroville has its own perspective, one that is worth mentioning.  The New York Times quotes Alan Singer about the idea of shutting down Duroville.  “If Duroville is shut down,” he says, “where will these thousands live?”

That is a good point.  The demand for low-wage workers will remain as long as Americans do not want to pick fruit in 110 degree heat for minimum wage without benefits.

This story touches a separate, and perhaps stronger current. It is a touchstone for disagreements about immigration. Critical voices that rail against the park are readily engaged in counter arguments by people who support the tenants. Many of the tenants pick fruit and vegetables in the fertile fields that surround the park. Others work in service industries. The area is not far from Palm Springs, California, a region with many retirees and vacationers.