Wells Select Board Puts Mobile Home Park Lot Rent Stabilization Ordinance on November Town Ballot

PHOTO: Mobile home park residents pack Tuesday meeting of the Wells Select Board.

At the Wells Select Board meeting on Tuesday, in a room packed full of mobile home park residents and community members, the selectmen voted unanimously to put an ordinance to stabilize lot rents at mobile home parks onto the municipal ballot in November, according to the Maine Labor Climate Council. The Select Board also passed a 60-day emergency moratorium on lot rent increases to prevent rent hikes before voters can decide on the initiative in November.

The proposed ordinance would cap annual lot rent increases to the rate of inflation (CPI-W) + 1%, while creating a process for park owners to seek higher increases when necessary for major improvements. Additionally, the ordinance would create an affordability threshold ceiling. This means that a park owner seeking to raise monthly rents to an amount greater than 40 percent of York County’s Social Security Income must first go through an appeals process with the town.

There are approximately 390 mobile home park lots in Wells. Blueberry Ridge, a park with 97 units, is owned by a large investment group, and charges residents up to $900/month in lot rents, according to data recently published by The Maine Office of Community Affairs.

Lynzy Kosmes, a resident of the Blueberry Ridge Mobile Home Park, said that she and her neighbors have been organizing meetings in their yards for months. Hefty rent increases have continued despite unresolved issues with their water that she claims is not safe to drink.

“If we get another increase like last year, my 89 year old neighbor won’t be able to afford her groceries and medications,” said Kosmes. “It’s easy to get desensitized to just how bad things are.”

In July, they began holding meetings open to residents of all the other mobile home parks in town, drawing crowds at times upwards of 70 people. The residents spoke with members of the selectboard and presented a draft municipal ordinance, overfilling the room at the Town Hall. The Select Board later held their meetings discussing the ordinance at a higher-capacity space in the Wells Public Library Community Room.

“Seeing these people stand up and realize they have power in their own hands is something I will remember for a really long time,” said Kristin Davis, a Wells resident and candidate for Maine House District 145. “Veterans, retirees, people who have worked hard their entire lives [...] suddenly they were being squeezed. They decided they would make a change, and they decided that it is not going to be like that anymore."

“It’s exciting to see this renewed vigor from people, especially our elders, in feeling capable of fighting back against injustice,” said Kosmes. “People who own their homes shouldn’t be at the mercy of some corporations' balance sheets just because they don’t own the plot of land underneath them.”

“Everyone who took action on this campaign was showing one another that they were not alone, that their voice matters, that they have community,” Kosmes said, “It is a collective fight, and it is worth it.”