'We're human beings': Michigan mobile home residents fight rent hikes, worsening conditions

If Carla Kinsey's rent keeps rising, she worries she'll end up homeless.

For more than a decade, she has lived in Avon on the Lake, a community of manufactured homes for older adults in Rochester Hills. When she moved there in 2010, Kinsey was looking to settle in what she called her “final home.”  

But now, her rent, including the cost of the land where her home sits, consumes more than half of her monthly income. She pays more than $700 every month, up 57% since she moved in. 

If it wasn’t for food assistance benefits, she said she wouldn’t be able to eat. Kinsey — who is on a fixed income — is also juggling the cost of car and health insurance and utilities. There’s not much left over. She can’t pick up a job because of a rare heart condition that forces her to wear an oxygen machine. 

“I feel trapped,” Kinsey, 71, said. “I can’t afford to move and I can’t afford to stay.” 

Yes Communities, which manages Avon on the Lake, did not respond to emails and calls seeking comment. 

“It makes me anxious and I'm afraid that there's going to come a day when it gets to be so high that I'm just going to have to walk out of here,” Kinsey said.

In the midst of an affordable housing crunch and with yearslong Section 8 voucher waitlists, manufactured homes tend to be a more affordable option compared with traditional site-built houses, particularly for seniors and low-income households. A factory-built home can be a steppingstone for families pursuing homeownership or the last stop before falling into homelessness. But advocates say manufactured housing is quickly becoming unaffordable as private equity firms buy up parks and raise rents. In some cases, it’s unclear who owns the lots, making it easier for maintenance problems to go unaddressed. 

Manufactured home residents have mobilized to back a package of bills to bolster protections for residents, by ramping up licensing requirements for owners and creating more transparency around who wants to buy mobile home communities. 

Meanwhile, an association that represents manufactured home suppliers and community owners in Michigan, says the issues residents and advocates have raised represent a small fraction of the industry. The industry group supports a separate set of bills, including one outlining when owners can deem homes abandoned to remove them or obtain the title. 

There are 1,032 licensed manufactured housing communities in the state and half of the licensed owners are located out of state, according to the Michigan Department of Licensing and Regulatory Affairs (LARA). The department struggles to contact these operators when problems arise, a LARA official said during a Senate committee hearing last month. 

A household that lives in a manufactured home may own the structure but rent the land on which it sits. For many, “mobile” may be a misnomer. 

“It's difficult, expensive or outright impossible to move these homes and so residents are forced to tolerate escalating rents, arbitrary fees, lack of transparency in billing and failure to invest in the maintenance of park properties, all which contribute to their housing insecurity,” said Esther Sullivan, a professor of sociology at the University of Colorado Denver, at the Senate committee hearing.

‘We’re human beings’ 

The stench of sewage can be so strong during the summer that Amanda Brown doesn’t let her 10-year-old son play outside. It wafts into her home, too. The heat only makes it worse. 

“We don't come out the house unless we're leaving,” Amanda Brown, 34, said. 

She’s not comfortable drinking the tap water, either. It’s cloudy and tastes like pennies, she said. She filters it now, after having to buy bottled water.

Her family lives in Landmarks Estates, a manufactured home community in Warren, and they are among the residents frustrated about increased lot rent, fallen tree limbs, sewage problems and unreliable water infrastructure. 

Her husband, Mark Brown, said his family’s water was cut off without notice for as long as three hours a few times in the last year. They received notification from management after the water came back on, he said. And last summer, a windstorm knocked down a tree limb, hit the top of their home and left a gash in the roof. Water poured into their bedroom. The tree behind their home has not been removed and Mark Brown had to seal up the gap himself, after waiting for someone to fix it, he said. 

“We're human beings. Just because we're low-income doesn't mean they get to walk all over us. … We shouldn't have to live like this,” Amanda Brown said. Their lot rent has gone up nearly 20%, from $450 to $538 in the last four years.

Lloyd Johnson — who has lived in Landmark Estates for more than 20 years — said his lot rent also rose 20% from $342 to $411 about four years ago. But that increase has not led to improvements, he said. He recalls a time when there was maintenance on-site, but that’s not the case anymore. The current management company is difficult to reach and he doesn’t know who actually owns the park, he said. 

“The little money that I get, I got to spread it in so many different places,” said 67-year-old Johnson, who is retired and on a fixed income. He has had to cut back on buying extra food and household items. 

In 2020, a few months after Blaer Roberts moved into Landmark Estates, he said raw sewage would flow into his yard “like Niagara Falls” whenever he or a neighbor would flush their toilets. The issue is not as frequent for him now but his neighbors are dealing with the problem, he said. 

“It literally smells like someone is using the bathroom,” Roberts, 34, said. 

Residents say the park switched hands a few years ago but problems persist. 

Open Management LLC took over management of the property in January 2022, according to Vice President Michelle Oppelt. Open Management does not own the property, Oppelt said, but declined to say who does, noting that it's in public records. The owner of Landmark Estates is listed as "LME MHP, LLC," according to LARA records. Both LME MHP LLC and Open Management LLC are linked to the same mailing address in Plymouth. Open Management LLC is "organized under the laws of" New York state, according to LARA.

Oppelt said the company has put more than $600,000 into repairing infrastructure of the park, including upgrading water and sewer lines and tree trimming. Residents who spoke to the Free Press said they haven’t seen major improvements. Oppelt said there was a one-time $35 rent increase in October 2021 after ownership changed hands and since then, there have been no additional rent increases. 

Oppelt said residents can reach out directly to Open Management to address maintenance issues. Landmark Estates is a licensed manufactured home community, according to LARA records. 

“We send out resident polls, we do outbound calls. We have communication channels within our team if there's ever an escalated resident issue that needs to be addressed,” she said. 

Water and sewage issues are addressed on a case-by-case basis, and the company must determine whether the problem is within the home itself or the lines within the ground infrastructure, she said. When water is turned off, email blasts and notifications go out when repairs are being made, she said. 

Open Management identifies dead trees for removal, but if storms pull down limbs, that may be covered by homeowners’ insurance, she said. Oppelt pointed to an instance when the company covered the cost of trimming a dead limb and paid to repair the roof for one resident when it was unclear whether the homeowner or management company was responsible. 

“When you look at it at a community-wide level, we have a lot more residents that have given us the feedback that they're happy with our management versus unhappy,” she said. She cited a 25-page letter detailing a breakdown of repairs in the park, an example of emails sent to Warren officials and quotes the company attributed to residents. 

Mark Brown is among the residents quoted in the letter, but said he was unaware of how his testimonial would be used, adding that there haven’t been improvements. 

In the letter, the company also said it entered a “written agreement” with the city of Warren to make “continued improvements.” 

City and state officials have raised concerns about the conditions at Landmark Estates. 

A city of Warren building inspector drove through the park in late February in response to complaints about lack of water pressure. 

“The (water) system in the park is so old,” said John Impellizzeri, of the city of Warren’s building division. 

Warren City Council in 2022 adopted a resolution to initiate a civil nuisance case against Open Door Capital, LLC related to Landmark Estates, according to the Macomb Daily. 

“It's really frustrating as someone who has spent time in social services for so long to not be able to help people, particularly when they're in your city and you should have some jurisdiction over situations like these, where the living conditions are compromising the residents’ health, safety and well-being. We should be able to do something and hold those people accountable,” said Warren City Council President Angela Rogensues, who spearheaded the nuisance complaint. 

Rogensues told state lawmakers last month that many parks are in “tremendous disrepair.” She reported seeing residents dealing with rat infestation, trees growing through trailers, trip hazards and trailers filled with garbage in 2022. Rogensues said she reached out to city and state departments and was told they didn’t have jurisdiction over mobile home parks. The city cannot test to regulate the water once it enters the park, she said, meaning the owner is responsible for the water quality. 

“Renters of mobile homes and even owners of mobile homes do not fall into a category I can regulate or enforce,” she told lawmakers. 

Bills seek to regulate mobile home parks 

Rogensues is among the proponents of a package of Senate bills to regulate mobile home parks. 

The current rules are “antiquated” making it harder for the state to rein in unlicensed operators, said state Sen. John Cherry, D-Flint, a bill sponsor. 

“The goal of the bills is to put in some commonsense reforms that ensure that we have a system of regulation that protects residents, makes sure that folks have access to affordable housing options, while also ensuring that these types of communities can still do business,” Cherry said. 

The proposed legislation would increase license fees and prevent unlicensed owners from collecting rent. The bills would require the Manufactured Housing Commission, made up of members appointed by the governor, to review and approve any lot rent increases management companies wish to implement. LARA would have to create a database of mobile park owners. The department would work with local governments to conduct park inspections. 

The bills are a “really good start to even out the playing field,” said Greg Abler, an attorney at the Flint-based Center for Civil Justice, who described the landscape as the “Wild West.”

“When I get phone calls from mobile home park residents, it seems to me there's two problems they're facing here: getting priced out of the mobile home parks by these exorbitant rent increases, but at the same time, the deplorable conditions,” Abler said. Those conditions include sewage backups, water main breaks, poor infrastructure and refusal to make repairs. 

“You've got to have these guardrails and parameters in place because otherwise, folks are going to get priced out of their communities,” he said.

Holly Hook, a resident and advocate, works with MHAction, a group representing manufactured home residents. She agrees that the bills are a start. 

“We used to have mom and pop owners who charged reasonable fees and ran our communities well,” said Hook, 39, of Swartz Creek.

She lives with two other roommates to afford rent, splitting nearly $600 for lot rent, water, sewer and other fees. The cost has been going up about $50 on average each year since 2018, she said. 

The Senate bills would give LARA — the regulatory agency that oversees mobile homes parks — more enforcement power. The department struggles to contact out-of-state owners to address substandard living conditions, according to a department official during a Senate committee hearing. The department does not track unlicensed operators. The proposed bills would require owners to prove that they are good operators and have the financial wherewithal to correct violations, according to LARA. 

The Michigan Manufactured Housing Association, which represents roughly 650 home owners and builders, opposes the proposed Senate bills. The group said the bills would essentially impose “rent control,” a practice Michigan banned in 1988. John Lindley, president and CEO of the Michigan Manufactured Housing Association, pointed to a requirement for the Manufactured Housing Commission to approve rent increases. The need for a third party to approve rent increases would lead to diminished maintenance and services, Lindley said. 

Manufactured housing community owners are shouldering the burden of inflation-related overhead costs — including labor, supplies, property taxes and utilities — which are reflected in the lot rents, Lindley said. 

“We want that investment. We want the continued upkeep and improvement in those communities, which all costs money. Most capital investments are largely covered through rent,” he said.  

Lindley said the current regulation already allows the state to inspect and bring action against owners. 

Instead, the association supports a separate package of House bills that would prohibit renting without a written lease, allow operators to secure “abandoned” homes and have at least three LARA staff members responsible for inspections and managing licensing. Both the Senate and House bills require a database with information about park owners and their contact information and allow LARA to fine unlicensed operators up to $100,000. The House bills do not address rent increases.

“The vast majority of manufactured housing community owner operators in the state of Michigan do it right and they provide a great place for … hundreds of thousands of residents to live. But like any other industry, there's some bad actors, we need to have the tools in place to hold them accountable,” Lindley said. 

‘We made this our home’ 

Kimo Keawe has also seen his lot rent, water, sewer and other fees go up at Avon on the Lake, from $696 in 2022 when he moved in, to $763 in 2023 and $877 this year. 

“I’ve already had to make adjustments,” said Keawe, who is the president of the Avon on the Lake neighborhood association. Avon on the Lake is a licensed manufactured home community, according to LARA records. 

Keawe, 69, worries that he won’t be able to afford his co-payments and medications. He has reduced the coverage on his car insurance. Keawe spends more than a third of his monthly income on his housing, meaning the rent is unaffordable by federal measures. 

His wife went back to work because they needed to bring in more money to pay for the house, he said. 

Despite the rising rent costs, Keawe doesn’t want to move. 

“We made this our home. We bought the place. We put our blood, sweat and tears in renovating this house to make it our own,” he said. 

Contact Nushrat Rahman: nrahman@freepress.com; 313-348-7558. Follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter: @NushratR.