PITTSFIELD — The owners of Lake Onota Village have reduced their request for a rent increase at the manufactured housing park off Valentine Road.
A hearing on the proposal from MH Communities will be held before the city Mobile Park Rent Control Board at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday, April 24, at City Hall, at 70 Allen St.
Monthly rents in the 131-unit park would increase by $102 over three years, with monthly payments rising $34 per month each year.
At the low end, that would bring rents from the current monthly rate of $330 to $432 in year three, an increase of 30.9 percent. At the high end, rents would increase from the current monthly rate of $380 to $482 in year three, a 26.8 percent increase.
Initially, MH Communities sought an increase of $210 over three years — a rent hike of as much as 64 percent. The Nashua, N.H.-based company noted the most recent rent increase was approved 12 years ago.
When the board met last month, MH Communities proposed a reduced increase of $54 per month each year for three years. That increase would have raised rents 47.6 percent at the low end and 41.5 percent at the high end.
After hearing from residents about financial hardship, needed repairs, abandoned or vacant lots and illegal dumping by non-residents, the rent control board turned down that proposal. They also asked the owners to return with a smaller increase, provide more financial information and suggested that a second year of increases would be contingent upon making improvements.
Several residents said they respected the need for a rent increase after 12 years. But they said an increase should be smaller, and pointed out that many residents live on limited incomes or have a disability.
In a manufactured housing park, residents own or borrow to own housing, and rent the plot of land it sits upon in return for services. According to a study conducted by the Pew Charitable Trusts in 2021, three-fourths of manufactured housing is purchased as personal property with personal loans or cash.
According to the same study, in 2021, 54 percent of manufactured housing financing applications were rejected, as opposed to just 7 percent of loan applications for site-build homes.
The Mobile Home Rent Control Board is established under the Pittsfield city charter with the power to set rents and minimum occupancy standards in the city's two manufactured housing sites — Lake Onota Village and Allendale Pines.