Holly Hook, a resident of Swartz Creek Estates, is the founder of Michigan Mobile Home Residents for Affordable Housing. Residents of Swartz Creek Estates have faced lot rent increases since a new private equity ownership group took over in 2018. Hook and others have been pushing to get legislation passed to provide more protections for mobile home residents, but that has recently stalled out. (Jake May | MLive.com)

When Jim and Connie Grant moved into Swartz Creek Estates west of Flint four years ago, it cost $300 to rent a lot for their mobile home. The retired couple, who lives on social security checks, say they now pay about $530 a month with fees—a 76% increase—and often turn to family for help.

Marilyn Langley, a retired nurse, said her rent at Pine Ridge Mobile Home Park in Argentine Township jumped from $365 to roughly $540 in three years.

And Holly Hook says as her lot rent at Swartz Creek Estates ticked up—$75 one month, $25 another plus a bevy of trash, sewer and water fees added to the bill—she brought in two roommates to help with the rising cost of living.

“You just feel helpless. Your hands are tied,” Jim Grant said.

Across the country, private equity investors have reportedly been buying up manufactured housing communities and driving up lot rents. But in Michigan, a package of bills could clamp down on this practice, putting in more protections for mobile homeowners and updating the state’s manufactured housing law for the first time since 1987.

“Traditionally, manufactured housing has been a key contributor to affordable housing. We need to make sure that we get these reforms in place so that the industry can play a part in actually helping solve our affordable housing issue,” said Rep. John Cherry, D-Flint, who introduced the House bills last year.

Related: Michigan’s manufactured home sales fell off a cliff after 2000. Now they’re beginning to rebound.

High demand for affordable housing and the ongoing price hikes could spell trouble for the 22 million Americans living in mobile homes.

For many mobile homeowners, who earn lower incomes or have fixed incomes, increases of $20 can strain monthly budgets. And older mobile home residents are facing mounting financial pressures with nearly 12% saying it’s “very difficult” to pay for expenses and a quarter saying they often do not have enough food or can’t afford food, a 2022 U.S. Census Bureau survey found.

“My social security doesn’t increase every six months,” Langley said.

Mobile homeowner and resident of Swartz Creek Estates Jim Grant on on Thursday, Oct. 3, 2019 . (Sara Faraj | MLive.com)Sara Faraj | MLive.com

Langley, Hook and the Grants all saw their rents go up after Havenpark Communities, formerly called Havenpark Capital, bought their mobile home parks in 2018 and 2019. The Utah-based real estate investment firm owns at least 10 mobile home communities in Michigan, but a spokesperson did not confirm the exact number of properties the privately-held company owns or manages as a third-party.

“We understand the anxiety that any rent increase has on residents, especially those on fixed incomes,” Havenpark said in a statement.

Because of this, Havenpark says it created a policy two years ago that limits rent increases to $50 annually, then, once a property reaches market rate, prices will increase with inflation (typically 3-5%). Most Michigan properties have had annual rent increases between $20 and $30, according to the company.

Havenpark says it has “invested far more in community upgrades and improvements than we have received in rent increases” since coming to Michigan in 2018. It recently announced a plan to add 475 homes to River’s Edge in Clinton Township after spending $6.1 million in improvements to the park.

Despite the investments, attorneys general in Michigan, Indiana, Ohio and Iowa have all fielded complaints about Havenpark’s business practices, according to advocacy group MHAction.

“If we’re going to have affordable housing, particularly in rural and urban areas, it’s one of the few options that people have. It’s truly unfair that folks are being treated this way,” said Paul Terranova, MHAction Midwest Community Organizer.

Holly Hook, a resident of Swartz Creek Estates, is the founder of Michigan Mobile Home Residents for Affordable Housing. Residents of Swartz Creek Estates have faced lot rent increases since a new private equity ownership group took over in 2018. Hook and others have been pushing to get legislation passed to provide more protections for mobile home residents, but that has recently stalled out. (Jake May | MLive.com)

Because residents own their homes but not the land underneath, those facing big rent increases have limited options, Cherry said, which leaves them “ripe to be exploited.” It can cost thousands of dollars to move a manufactured house, and some aging homes would fall apart if they were relocated.

For Hook, paying off her home five years ago gave her the freedom to leave the healthcare field and pursue a career writing young adult fiction. But she soon felt trapped as the steady rent increases chipped away at her financial stability.

“It makes you feel stuck, like you’re someone’s resource, because these homes are not very mobile,” she said. “To move one of these homes you have to find a contractor who will do it and they’re in very short supply these days.”

Related: Which counties have the most manufactured homes?

Michigan has an estimated 239,000 manufactured homes, according to U.S. Census Data, with the highest concentrations in rural areas like Lake, Newaygo, Osceola and Missaukee counties.

House bills 4298-4304 were crafted in partnership with residents, consumer advocates and the manufactured housing industry to create protections for these thousands of Michigan mobile homeowners.

“The legislation is very simple: Let’s keep the bad actors out of Michigan,” Cherry said. “And the good actors, the folks who have a track record of not engaging in those bad business practices, allow them to operate more freely.”

Under the proposed legislation, mobile home park owners would be required to provide one-year leases to residents. It would also enact licensing regulations, creating a database of mobile home park owners and refusing licenses to those with a history of “unjustifiable rent increases.”

Another major component would block mobile home park owners from seizing abandoned homes.

Before February 2020, manufactured housing communities could get the title to a vacated home through the Michigan Secretary of State. A new policy, however, requires park owners to go through the court system to get a title, according to the Michigan Manufactured Housing Association.

Under House Bill 4304, mobile home park owners who want to obtain an abandoned house would be required to buy it from the homeowners at a fair market value.

The bills sailed through the Michigan House with a bipartisan vote of 204-97 in May 2021.

But the legislation has since stalled.

Related: Michigan’s $1 billion pandemic rent fund is drying up. What’s next?

The Michigan Manufactured Housing Association, the industry group that helped draft the legislation, pulled support earlier this year saying there were some regulatory changes it “could not support.”

“MMHA members continue to focus on provided an affordable housing option to Michigan residents through the management of safe and quality communities and would be supportive of certain legislative changes to strengthen regulation of the industry,” a statement said.

Havenpark, a member of the Michigan Manufactured Housing Association, referred to the industry group’s statement when asked to comment on the bills.

“There are a lot of a powerful lobbies in Michigan,” Cherry said. “But the fact of the matter is there’s hundreds of thousands of people in the state of Michigan who live in manufactured housing communities. They’re typically people who are retirees on fixed incomes or folks who are low-income and using this as an affordable housing option. Sometimes they don’t have the loudest voice in Lansing.”

Without industry support, it’s unclear if the bills will move past the Senate Committee on Regulatory Reform. For Hook, who got so fed up with rent increases she founded Michigan Mobile Home Residents for Affordable Housing and was recently appointed to the Manufactured Housing Commission by Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, the standstill is frustrating.

“We’re really hoping for these bills to pass, and I hate telling [residents] that they’ve hit a snag,” she said.

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