Manufactured Home Owners Rally at Capitol to Support Legislation

02.10.2010 by Elizabeth Ziegler

(KCPW News) About three dozen mobile home park residents, mostly senior citizens, rallied in the Capitol rotunda Tuesday to support two bills introduced this session. Taylorsville Republican Representative Jim Dunnigan said his legislation would ensure homeowners have the right to organize associations, pass out fliers and hold meetings on mobile home park property.

“So that you can gather as a group and discuss ideas and either as an individual or as an association, feel like you’re able to go and discuss your concerns with the park owner and the park management without fear of retaliatory rent increases or evictions or other problems,” he said.

The second bill, sponsored by West Valley City Democratic Representative Janice Fisher, gives homeowners more protection from excessive rent increases, allowing them to appeal rent increases to an independent third-party arbitrator. This struck a chord with Don Saulnier, who lives in the Westcrest manufactured home park in West Valley City.

“Most people move into these mobile home parks because they can’t afford to buy a regular house and they think, ‘Now, this is going to be reasonable.’ But then they don’t realize that their rents are going to go up every single year. And with the rent and a mortgage, it’s practically unaffordable,” he told KCPW.

A large number of the state’s mobile home parks are in Salt Lake County, and many residents are senior citizens. While they own their homes, they have to rent the land beneath them. In recent years, lawmakers have passed several measures protecting manufactured home owners, including a bill of rights, legislation giving residents more notice if their park is going to be sold, and a bill to allow cities and counties to help relocate those displaced by development.