Mobile Homeowners Rally for Rights Tomorrow

11.13.2009 by Elizabeth Ziegler

(KCPW News) Up to 200 people are expected to rally tomorrow at Washington Square in Salt Lake City for mobile homeowner rights. Steve Anderson, President of the Utah Manufactured Homeowners Group, says mobile homeowners are tired of what he describes as a “master-slave” relationship with landowners and lawmakers.

“We’re homeowners for crying out loud. And we are deserving of the same respect, we are deserving of the same rights as any other homeowner in the state of Utah,” Anderson says. “And we’re tired of going to the Legislature year after year like the little boy Oliver and saying, ‘Please sir, can I have some more.’”

Melinda Gurr with the Salt Lake Community Action Program says although the Utah Legislature passed protections for mobile home owners two years ago, more needs to be done to balance homeowners’ rights with landowners’ rights.

Gurr says the majority of mobile homeowners are seniors, rents on mobile home slots have gone up 77 percent in five years, and parks are being sold with no notice to tenants. She says mobile homes are the largest form of unsubsidized housing in the state, and should be protected. Gurr says mobile homeowners and low-income advocates are working with lawmakers on several bills for the upcoming legislative session.

“We’d like for more protections for homeowners so they can’t just loose their homes over arbitrary disputes between managements and themselves,” Gurr says. “We’d like homeowners to be able to peacefully organize and assemble, and we’d like homeowners to be notified if they parks are going to be sold so they can have an opportunity to purchase the park.”

Gurr says some homeowners have successfully banded together in southern Utah and across the nation to purchase their mobile home parks and operate them cooperatively, instead of having the land sold to another owner or developer. She says legislators should be creating incentives to allow this to happen.