The city of Saco passed an emergency moratorium on mobile home rent increases on Oct. 27 in order to help local mobile home residents. Over the past year, many residents of mobile home lots throughout Maine have seen a significant rent increases.
At Blue Haven Community in Saco, new residents are faced with a monthly rent of over $700, while long-term residents are seeing their rent increase to over $600.
“We live in Maine for a reason. We don’t live in California,” Blue Haven resident Lisa Desrosiers said at last week’s City Council meeting. “We don’t make as much money as they do in California.”
In September, a new law, LD 1723, “An Act to Amend the Laws Governing Manufactured Housing Communities to Prevent Excessive Rent and Fees Increases,” went into effect.
The law requires mobile home park owners to give residents a 90-day notice of rent increase, and also grants mobile home park residents the right to negotiate their rent.
It is just one of several laws intended to protect mobile home park residents from excessive rent increases, but residents like Desrosiers said the laws are not having the desired effect.
“Please hear our voice. We can’t afford it,” Desrosiers told Saco City Council. “We need help.”
Another Blue Haven resident, Lynn Johnson, said the current owners of the park offer “nothing” in terms of services.
Johnson said she feels it’s unfair for the rent to increase when residents are responsible for all aspects of their homes, including lawn care and tree maintenance.
“Blue Haven was a place that people could afford when other places were out of reach to them,” Johnson said. “This is a small community, and we’d like to be able to stay here.”
According to Robert Henry, who lives in Blue Haven Community, many of the park’s residents live on fixed incomes and are greatly impacted by rent increases.
“I would ask the owners to consider us as people,” Henry said. “It’s common knowledge that you live in a mobile home in lieu of buying a regular house because of financial feasibility.”
Saco City Council unanimously passed the emergency moratorium, which will remain in effect until Dec. 26.
Councilor Phil Hatch, Ward 5, thanked the residents of Blue Haven for taking the time to speak at recent council meetings.
“As hard as it was, I want you to know how impactful that was,” Hatch said.
While the moratorium was approved by all members of the council, some councilors were concerned about the timeline of the moratorium, saying that an end date of Dec. 26 might not be enough time for relevant state laws to take effect.
Saco Mayor Jodi MacPhail reassured the council that the issue will be discussed at the Dec. 15 meeting. If the moratorium needs to be extended at that time, the council can vote to do so.
“Where it ends the day after Christmas, we want to make sure we’re ahead of it before expiration,” MacPhail said.
