Maine Labor Climate Council Mobile Home Park Organizing Campaign Updates

Mobile home park residents across the state continue to make progress in forming in fighting exploitive corporate owners and stabilizing rents. The Maine Labor Climate Council has organized several mobile home parks to go their local select boards and city councils to request moratoriums on rent increases and rent stabilization ordinances.

SEARSPORT: On Saturday, Searsport residents voted 67-12 to pass an ordinance limiting rent increases at mobile home parks. The Searsmont rent stabilization ordinance is the second one that has passed in the state, after Old Orchard Beach in 2024. . Many mobile home park residents and State Sen. Chip Curry spoke in favor of the ordinance.

Residents (who are mostly elderly and on fixed incomes) have spent months organizing inside their park and across the broader community to get this on the warrant. They've identified leaders, had one-on-one conversations with neighbors, gathered hundreds of signatures and have shown up repeatedly at select board meetings. Their model borrows directly from organized labor and is building real power: state legislators, gubernatorial candidates and U.S. Senate candidates have started showing up to these and other organizing meetings in mobile home parks across the state.

Most mobile home park residents in Maine own their homes but rent the land underneath them. They’re generally proud of where they live. But as we’ve seen across Maine and nationally, wealthy corporate owners—often large private equity firms—who rarely set foot in these parks continue to raise lot rents while conditions deteriorate. Moving isn’t a real option, because relocating a mobile home can cost tens of thousands of dollars. Some residents are at real risk of losing the only stable housing they can afford.

The passage of the ordinance is a rare example of rent stabilization enacted through direct town vote, and a clear story of working-class organizing in the kinds of rural communities where people have felt left behind by our current political system.

LEWISTON: Tuesday, March 3: The Lewiston City Council held a public hearing and final voteon a proposed 180-day moratorium on rent increases for lots in mobile home parks across the city.

The proposed ordinance would temporarily freeze lot rents at their current rates while the Council studies the issue of rapidly rising lot rents and considers implementing a longer-term rent stabilization program. If adopted, the moratorium would take effect 30 days after final passage and remain in effect for 180 days, unless extended.

Lewiston is home to seven mobile home parks that provide critical housing for residents at or below median income levels. In recent years, lot rents have increased sharply, placing financial strain on many residents — particularly seniors — who often own their homes but rent the land beneath them. Because mobile homes are costly and difficult to relocate, residents face limited bargaining power and few alternatives when rents rise.

The campaigns in Jay, Norway, Hancock, Bowdoin, Augusta and Auburn are continuing apace. Over the next few weeks, there will be some exciting GOTV coverage in Jay for the annual Town Meeting vote on April 28.