Eight Towns to Vote on Ordinances to Stabilize Mobile Home Park Rents

On Election Day, Augusta, Eliot, Farmington, Jay, Oakland, Standish, Wells and Wiscasset will be voting on ordinances to stabilize lot rents in mobile home parks that have been bought up by greedy out-of-state real estate investors. The Maine Labor Climate Council just put out a powerful new video featuring Robert Frederics, a resident of the Twin Birches mobile home park in Farmington. Fredericks, who has lived in the park for two decades, says after the park was bought in 2023, the new landlord doubled his mobile home lot rent.

“The rent keeps going up, along with everything in the world keeps going up, and we’re not getting any benefits out of it,” said Fredericks. “I’ve never met the gentleman [who owns the park], but he sends his office people up here and their only remark is ‘If you don’t like it leave.”

Watch the video here!

Fredericks says the new landlord hasn’t kept up with routine maintenance and the road is “horrendous” in the spring, so he had to buy $1,300 box blade for his tractor to fix the roads, costing him two and half months’ rent. He said he hopes Farmington residents pass a rent stabilization ordinance next Tuesday so he doesn’t have to worry whether he can afford to stay in his home.

“They keep going up with these rents, we just have to rally together and see if we can do something to control it,” he said. “Because if not, we’ll all be looking at the same corner streetlight to hang out on. It’s real tight. I’d say more or less we’re standing on the edge of a cliff. The next step could ruin you.”

If you live in Augusta, Eliot, Farmington, Jay, Oakland, Standish, Wells or Wiscasset please vote YES on the lot stabilization measure on the ballot so people like Robert can afford to stay in their homes.