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Yahoo
05-06-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Bills to help mobile park residents protect homes advance but funding remains an obstacle for some
(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. To save affordable housing, states promote resident-owned mobile home parks 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.' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
14-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Maine lawmakers consider bill to stop mobile home park sales for three months
May 14—State lawmakers are considering a three-month moratorium on the sale of mobile home parks, a move that would disrupt at least two pending sales in Maine. Supporters say a pause on mobile home sales would allow lawmakers to evaluate a handful of mobile home-related bills, while also giving the residents of Friendly Village in Gorham a fair shot at purchasing their park. But opponents argue the stoppage would infringe on the rights of private property owners, and one would-be seller said it could sink a sale that is critical to both him and his tenants. Proposed by Sen. Chip Curry, D-Belfast, the bill would bar the sale of any mobile home park in Maine until Oct. 31. Because the bill is proposed as an emergency bill, it would go into effect immediately after passage, although it would require two-thirds majorities in both chambers. Some supporters suggested adding an exemption for residents trying to purchase their parks, as well as an extension of the moratorium through the end of the year. Curry told the Housing and Economic Development Committee that he updated the bill's language after hearing for months that the state is losing affordable housing to private equity investors looking to profit "and I would argue exploitatively" from low-income Mainers. Curry proposed the moratorium "to give us time to catch up on the regulatory environment so we can best protect our most vulnerable members of the community," he said. BILLS ON THE TABLE Mobile home parks in Maine and across the county are increasingly being purchased by out-of-state investors who then raise the monthly lot rents, in some cases by two or three times, according to national data. An estimated one-fifth of Maine's 468 licensed parks are now owned by out-of-state investors. Following passage of a 2023 "opportunity to purchase law," several communities, including those in Brunswick, Bangor and Monmouth, have formed cooperatives to purchase their parks. But more than twice as many have failed, even with offers just above those of the competition. Lawmakers are currently considering several bills to protect mobile homeowners, including one that would give residents the "right of first refusal" to purchase their park when it goes up for sale. Another would attach a hefty per-lot fee to the purchase of a community (on top of the purchase price) to be paid to MaineHousing to replenish a statewide program designed to help residents buy their parks. Resident-owned co-ops and affordable housing groups would be exempt from the fee. Another bill would eliminate the real estate transfer tax on sales of mobile home parks to resident buyers. The committee tabled two similar bills Tuesday that aim to prevent sudden and dramatic lot-rent increases. Rep. Cheryl Golek, D-Harpswell, who proposed one of the rent control bills, asked that committee members consider a freeze on mobile home rents if they decide to push her bill to next session. "These are people's lives that we're talking about," she said. "This is not a political, divided issue. We have hundreds and hundreds of people begging us ... to do something to protect them." A TALE OF TWO PARKS Dawn Beaulieu, a resident of Friendly Village for almost 30 years, said residents plan to submit an offer Monday — one that is higher than the $22 million offer from Crown Communities, the prospective buyer. But many sellers don't want to give up a sure sale in favor of an offer from residents who may struggle to pull the money together. "(The moratorium) would give us the amount of time we need to put a good faith motion forward with financing, to show them that they're still going to get what they're looking for," Beaulieu said. Nora Gosselin, director of resident acquisitions at the Cooperative Development Institute, said she's watched the Legislature this session approach the "complicated issue of mobile home park preservation with huge creativity and thoughtfulness." The institute assists residents who are trying to buy their parks. The bill, she said, would weave together the committee's work with Friendly Village's "Herculean" organizing efforts to buy the park. "A moratorium on large park transactions will allow the protections crafted by this committee ... to kick into effect in time to benefit the almost 300 households at Friendly Village," she said. But Michael Oneglia, the owner of two parks in Belfast, said the bill could kill a deal that he has spent tens of thousands of dollars and more than 10 months trying to close. Oneglia is under contract to sell Seacoast Village, a 22-lot park, and Hyland Estates, a 68-lot park, and is set to close in the coming weeks. Residents were not interested in purchasing the parks, he said, so he proceeded with a private sale. But if the moratorium goes into effect, "I will absolutely lose my buyer," he told the committee. "I have a personal situation where I need to sell and this will really screw things up for me and my tenants." If the deal falls through, Oneglia said, he would have to cut back the parks' services to just the essentials, dramatically lowering the standard of living for his tenants, who will pay the same amount of money while he recovers from the financial hit. "I just can't believe we're even at a point where we're talking about a moratorium of the sale of a private piece of property," he said. "It seems un-American and it's completely inappropriate." 'MORE HARM THAN GOOD' Others who opposed the moratorium bill, including many park owners like Oneglia, said a moratorium could devalue their properties and risks being an unconstitutional taking of property. Tina Marie Smith, vice president of State Manufactured Homes in Scarborough, said the bill was "created with unsubstantiated hysteria" and that it and the provisions being considered in the other bills threaten the future of their industry. She asked that legislators not paint all park owners with the same brush and consider families like hers who have owned the same park for generations. "You're systematically trying to remove what we all thought would be a generational legacy," she said. "I consider all of the legislation that has been unleashed upon us to be extremely one-sided." Sandra Hinkley, president of the Manufactured Housing Association of Maine and the owner of Maple Hill Estates, a 110-lot park in Mechanic Falls, said a moratorium would be "nothing short of imprisonment" for community owners in Maine. That bill, along with the other mobile home-related bills being considered, would punish people who have provided affordable housing in the state for decades, "threatening our property rights, devaluing our businesses and setting a precedent that the state can choose when and how we sell our businesses and to whom," she said. Hinkley suggested that if legislators are concerned about losing affordable housing, they work with MaineHousing to provide funding for park owners looking to expand. "(The moratorium) will do more harm than good and does not address the real objective, which is to create more housing," she said. Copy the Story Link We believe it's important to offer commenting on certain stories as a benefit to our readers. At its best, our comments sections can be a productive platform for readers to engage with our journalism, offer thoughts on coverage and issues, and drive conversation in a respectful, solutions-based way. It's a form of open discourse that can be useful to our community, public officials, journalists and others. We do not enable comments on everything — exceptions include most crime stories, and coverage involving personal tragedy or sensitive issues that invite personal attacks instead of thoughtful discussion. You can read more here about our commenting policy and terms of use. More information is also found on our FAQs. Show less
Yahoo
19-03-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Jobs for Maine prisoners are shifting online. The state wants to charge for the tech.
Mar. 19—A series of bills proposed by the Maine Department of Corrections that could increase fees for people held in state prisons has prompted lawmakers to ask for a clearer look at the economy inside the prison system as more people are doing remote work while behind bars. Maine's prisons already impose fees for health care treatment, room and board for those participating in work release programs, and could soon see a price tag on prison-issued laptops. The Legislature's Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee last week signaled support of two of the department's requests to codify such fees in state law, but some lawmakers first want to create a working group to study what impacts these charges have on inmates. "They have to live within an economy that we create," Sen. Chip Curry, D-Waldo, said during a work session last week. That economy is increasingly growing. With as many as 350 people working while in state custody throughout the year, Maine collected more than $670,000 in room and board fees last year, according to data from the Department of Corrections. That's more than twice what the state collected in 2020, though those numbers may have been affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. And a handful of those jobs are remote work, done on prison-issued computers, making between $40,000 to more than $90,000 per year, a DOC spokesperson said. Advocates have told lawmakers that there are already too many fees, especially for those who face bills for court fines, restitution and child support, and that inmates are already paying the price of their crimes with incarceration. But officials at the department say these fees lead to a "sense of normalization," because outside of prison, people who have full-time jobs are responsible for living expenses. TECHNOLOGY & HEALTH CARE Lawmakers on the criminal justice committee unanimously voted last week in favor of one bill that would impose a maximum $35 monthly fee for the laptops, but were split on whether to support costs for room and board. And though they were also divided on a proposal, LD 18, to increase health care fees; the majority of the committee amended the bill to include the creation of a working group, which would study all of the prisons' fees. The Department of Corrections asked the Legislature to raise the existing health care fees from $5 to $25. (People who have less than $15 in their accounts are exempt from payment.) Associate Commissioner Scott Landry told the committee that this extra income would help pay for a "helping hands" program where six to 10 people help other inmates with assisted living-type care. These increased fees could be used to pay them more (they currently make about $100 per month), or increase the number of jobs, Landry said. Five lawmakers on the committee voted in favor of increasing the fee to $15, and allowing inmates with $30 or less to be exempt. But eight lawmakers supported keeping the fee at $5 and simply giving the department explicit permission to use those funds for the prison worker program. The divided report now moves to the full Legislature for consideration. The majority also recommended the department create a group to provide input on whether fees like this are burdensome. Curry said the group should be made up of prison residents, people involved in the state victims' compensation program and prisoner advocacy organizations. They will also study the possible impact of a proposed monthly fee to cover the costs of prison-issued laptops. Landry said the department's funding source for its educational technology, the COVID-19 relief fund, has run out. And the proposed bill, LD 45, would help fill that funding gap. He suggested the department charge inmates depending on their income level, but not more than would actually exceed a "normal" fee for an internet service. Lawmakers in the committee voted unanimously in favor of the bill, with the stipulation that the department not charge more than $35 per month or more than 7% of an inmate's monthly income. They also agreed that if someone is making less than $100 per month, they would not be charged. WORKING FROM PRISON Right now, 166 people in Maine's prison system are participating in work release programs, according to Sam Prawer, spokesperson for the Maine Department of Corrections. Of those, 12 have remote jobs. Throughout the year, the department can have more than 350 people in these programs, many of which are seasonal and agriculture-based. But the state can deduct up to 20% of their income — 10% for room and board, which is sent to the state's general fund, not the Department of Corrections, and up to 10% to cover transportation provided by the department. Since 2020, the state fund has collected a total of $2.4 million. Residents are already paying these fees, but a third bill proposed by the department would solidify this policy in Maine law. A majority of lawmakers on the Legislature's Criminal Justice and Public Safety Committee supported the bill, LD 626, with the caveat that the department can't set those fees higher than 10% each. But two who voted in opposition say the department shouldn't be allowed to charge for room and board at all. Most people in work release programs earn between $14.75 to $25 per hour. These jobs, which take place outside of the prison walls, include restaurants, boat building, construction companies and car dealerships, Prawer said. People who have professional credentials or licenses can earn up to $46.50 per hour. The two dozen residents working remotely on their prison-issued laptops either have a full-time job, a fellowship or are employed as a student (including at the University of Maine at Augusta). Prawer said those full-time remote workers earn salaries between $40,000 to more than $90,000 per year. They work for companies like Unlocked Labs (a tech company that teaches coding) and the Center for Effective Public Policy. The highest-earning resident makes $96,000 a year, department officials told lawmakers during last week's work session. Rep. Grayson Lookner, D-Portland, said the state shouldn't be charging these fees because inmates are already paying these fees "with their freedom" by being incarcerated. He and Rep. Nina Milliken, D-Blue Hill, recommended that the department strike its room and board policy altogether. But Rep. Chad Perkins, R-Dover-Foxcroft, said he supports the bill because it would require people in prison to pay for their own well-being and give back to taxpayers. "We would expect anybody else to have to buy-in in their own lives," he said during the work session. Copy the Story Link We believe it's important to offer commenting on certain stories as a benefit to our readers. At its best, our comments sections can be a productive platform for readers to engage with our journalism, offer thoughts on coverage and issues, and drive conversation in a respectful, solutions-based way. It's a form of open discourse that can be useful to our community, public officials, journalists and others. We do not enable comments on everything — exceptions include most crime stories, and coverage involving personal tragedy or sensitive issues that invite personal attacks instead of thoughtful discussion. You can read more here about our commenting policy and terms of use. More information is also found on our FAQs. Show less
