Bills to help mobile park residents protect homes advance but funding remains an obstacle for some

Yahoo

2 days ago

(Photo by Getty Images)
Building off of a law passed last year, the Maine Legislature has advanced a number of bills that aim to support mobile home park residents in purchasing their parks.
The Senate voted in favor of two of these bills on Thursday. Others have already passed both chambers but still need to be funded.
'As legislators, we consistently hear that one of the top issues on the minds of Maine people is access to safe, affordable housing,' Sen. Chip Curry (D-Belfast), co-chair of the Housing and Economic Development Committee, said during a press conference following Thursday's votes. 'That's why our committee has been focused on two deeply connected challenges: how to build more housing in Maine, and just as urgently, how to protect the affordable housing we still have. It has become very clear to us that a critical component of this mission is protecting the residents of mobile home parks.'
The upper chamber voted 25-7 on Thursday to pass LD 1145 — after much discussion and a motion to table the measure failed. This bill would give a group of mobile home owners or a mobile home owners' association the right of first refusal to purchase a mobile home park if the owner intends to sell.
'This bill is about giving Mainers a fighting chance, a chance to protect their homes, a chance to protect their communities,' Sen. Tim Nangle (D-Cumberland) said on the floor.
Nangle's father bought a mobile home park in Massachusetts and ran it as a community, with the philosophy 'pay what you can and communicate,' Nangle said.
Since his father died, he and his siblings have tried to keep that spirit alive, however they started getting calls from out-of-state private equity firms recently interested in purchasing. But Massachusetts has a right of first refusal law, so the park residents were afforded the time to purchase the park themselves.
Last session, lawmakers passed a law that requires mobile home park owners to notify residents of their intent to sell and give them at least 60 days to make an offer.
'But it really didn't go far enough,' Nangle said. 'Right now, even if residents organize, raise the money and match or even exceed the offer, they can still be turned away with no explanation. The bill says, if you can match the offer, you have the right to pay.'
The version passed by the Senate was amended to include an emergency preamble, which was the version also passed by the majority of the Housing and Economic Development Committee. If enacted as an emergency, which will require the support of two-thirds of the Legislature, the bill would take effect immediately.
Having the bill take effect sooner would be beneficial for the newly created Friendly Village Cooperative, said cooperative president Dawn Beaulieu, a 30-year resident of the park. Residents formed the cooperative after being notified in March that the park was for sale.
'[We] have since made a counteroffer to purchase the park,' Beaulieu said during the Thursday press conference. 'As of today, we are still waiting for a response to that offer. Our livelihoods should not be in the hands of an out-of-state conglomerate that sees us not as a community, but as an investment. The legislation being considered here in Augusta will help us put our fate in our own hands.'
Whether other related bills become law will likely be a matter of funding priorities.
Both chambers already backed LD 255, which would allocate $3 million in one-time funding to create the manufactured and mobile home park preservation and assistance program to help preserve parks as affordable housing and support residents in purchasing their parks.
However, it now sits on the appropriations table, where bills with fiscal notes that are backed by the full Legislature are placed to vie for remaining funds after the budget is set.
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Though, the bill could still be funded in the two-year budget addition, which lawmakers have yet to set with less than two weeks remaining until their expected end date.
That's also the case for LD 554, which aims to encourage resident-owned communities through tax deductions. Another bill, LD 1768, which would amend the real estate transfer tax in an effort to protect mobile home parks, has also been backed by both chambers. But it would result in a decrease to state revenue and need a one-time appropriation so it may also land on the table.
On Wednesday, the Senate also passed LD 1016, which would establish the assistance program fund but also a fee to help with ongoing funding. The fee would be paid by certain park buyers equal to $10,000 for each lot in the community.
'I want to be very clear, I have no intention to de-incentivize the purchase of these parks by everyone,' said Sen. Cameron Reny (D-Lincoln), the bill sponsor. 'There are exceptions to this fee to state and municipal housing authorities, for resident owner cooperatives and for smaller businesses and individuals with net worths of less than $50 million.'
However, Sen. Rick Bennett (R-Oxford), who supported the minority committee report recommending against the bill's passage, said he finds some of the carveouts troubling, specifically the one based on net worth.
'It is treating people unfairly based on an arbitrary amount of money that that person or entity owns,' Bennett said. 'I believe this is unconstitutional for that reason, although it's very well intentioned.'
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