Oakland Residents Continue Push for Lot Rent Protections Ahead of Mobile Home Park Committee Meeting

Following a packed town council meeting and resident rally last week, Oakland mobile home park residents are continuing to call on town leaders to stand with working families instead of corporate park owners as the town prepares to revisit its temporary lot rent moratorium and a future ordinance on lot rent raises tonight.

Residents rallied before the Oakland town council meeting last Wednesday to demand action before the town’s 90-day moratorium on mobile home park lot rent increases expires June 25. Many residents spoke emotionally about the financial strain caused by rapidly rising rents, warning that without stronger protections, longtime community members risk losing the homes they’ve spent years building their lives around.

“We are scared and we are all in survival mode, because we don’t know what we’re going to pay from month to month. I get $994 a month from Social Security and $600 of that goes to rent,” said Rhonda West, a resident of Breen Mobile Home Park for 17 years. “We need residents and leadership of Oakland to get behind us and stop letting these corporations rob us.”

Across Maine, corporate investors have increasingly targeted mobile home parks to make a quick profit by driving up lot rents while squeezing the pocketbooks of seniors, veterans, people on disability benefits and others living on fixed incomes.

Oakland residents say the town now faces a clear choice: prioritize stable communities and affordable housing, or allow corporate profits to continue coming before people.

“Residents have made it very clear that they cannot afford more delays to lot rent stabilization in Oakland,” said Cheyenne Gallivan, Communications Director for the Maine Labor Climate Council, which has helped to organize residents in mobile home parks across the state. “This comes down to whether the town of Oakland will decide to protect the people who make this community home, or continue kicking the can down the road while corporations squeeze residents for profit.”

At last week’s meeting, Councilor Kelly Roderick called for extending the moratorium and reviewing a draft stabilization ordinance submitted by residents. Ongoing committee discussions have yet to produce concrete protections as the moratorium deadline rapidly approaches.

The May 18 Mobile Home Parks Committee Meeting is expected to include discussion of a potential extension of the moratorium, which residents say is necessary to prevent further rent hikes while the town considers long-term protections.