Norway Commons Manufactured Home Park Residents Urge Selectboard to Protect Against Lot Fee Increases

PHOTO: Norway Commons residents speak at a press conference last week.

Last week, residents of the Norway Commons manufactured home community called on the Norway Selectboard to enact a lot rent moratorium to stop repeated lot fee increases imposed by an out-of-state corporate owner. The group, which was organized by the Maine Labor Climate Council, held a press conference on February 5 at the Norway Episcopal Church ahead of the selectboard meeting.

Since the Norway Commons community was purchased by the Michigan-based company Sun Communities in December 2022, residents say lot fees have increased three times, driving monthly costs up more than 50 percent from under $400 to $625 or more, with no meaningful improvements to park infrastructure or services. Another increase is set to take effect on April 1. Norway Commons resident Sharon Leblond said at the press conference that the residents “are very vulnerable and powerless against this billion dollar corporation.”

“In the last four years, we have gone from being an affordable mobile home park to a place where many seniors on fixed incomes just can’t afford to live anymore,” LeBlond said.

Residents say the latest increase exploits a loophole in state law by comparing Norway Commons to higher-cost coastal communities rather than to its own historical fees. They argue the method is neither transparent nor appropriate for a rural inland community and is accelerating the loss of affordable housing. For many residents on fixed incomes, the rising fees now consume as much as two-thirds of a monthly Social Security check, forcing difficult choices and putting longtime residents at risk of housing instability.

Norway Commons residents also report that homes are becoming increasingly difficult to sell as lot fees rise faster than incomes. Residents urged the selectboard to enact a 180-day lot rent moratorium and use that timeframe to develop and adopt a local ordinance that would limit annual lot-fee increases, require increases to be calculated against existing local fees, not regional benchmarks, and provide reasonable caps on total increases.

The selectboard did not take action on the proposals, but scheduled a workshop on the residents’ requests for later this month. Norway Select Board Chair Russell Newcomb told residents at the meeting, “We understand the issues you are facing and we don’t like it, but we will see what we can do,” according to WGME.

Similar protections are already in place or under consideration in other Maine towns, as manufactured home communities are increasingly acquired by large, out-of-state corporations.  Last month MLCC and residents of a Sun Communities park in Augusta asked the city council there for a temporary rent moratorium and a rent stabilization ordinance. Residents of two Sun Communities properties in Brunswick organized and successfully lobbied their City Council to pass 180-day moratorium on lot rent increases in November.  Mobile home park residents in Jay, with the help of the Maine Labor Climate Council, also lobbied their selectboard to place a proposed moratorium on further rent hikes before voters at the town meeting in April.

According to available data, the majority of larger manufactured home parks in Maine are now corporately owned, a trend residents say is driving rapid fee increases and eroding one of the state’s last remaining sources of unsubsidized affordable housing.