2 weeks Ago By Jack O'Connor
ST. PAUL — A DFL bill to help residents of Minnesota manufactured home parks by limiting rent increases, preventing charges for utility repair costs and giving residents the chance to purchase park land was laid over in committee Tuesday, April 1. Manufactured homes — referred to as mobile homes, if built prior to 1976 — are an alternative housing option where people own the transportable residence and pay lot rent for land where the home is parked.
Residents of manufactured home parks told lawmakers at recent Minnesota Legislature committee hearings that they are being taken advantage of by investment firms who own and rent out the land that manufactured homes sit on. ADVERTISEMENT “It seems like these companies look at us like money machines instead of real people trying to make a life,” Andreas Hernandez, who lives in a manufactured park home with his mother and sister, said on March 20 in the Senate’s Housing and Homeless Prevention Committee. Hernandez said the uncertainty of knowing if a rent increase is coming makes his family afraid that his manufactured home will no longer be financially viable.
Minnesota was home to around 80,000 manufactured homes in 2019, with about half of those homes residing in parks, according to the Minnesota Department of Commerce. Rep. Matt Norris, DFL-Blaine, said manufactured homes are “under attack” in the state.
“One of the biggest concerns is these private equity firms that are moving in and buying up parks here in Minnesota and across the country and increasing the lot rent by incredibly high, unreasonable amounts, and making it difficult for these people, many of whom are on fixed incomes, either senior citizens or folks with disabilities to stay in their homes,” Norris said. Minnesota law requires rent increases in parks to be reasonable, but the law does not define what reasonable means. Norris's bill, HF2381, and its Senate version, SF2691 , would change that — limiting park owners to one rent increase a year and largely prohibiting rent increases greater than 3% from the previous year.
According to the bill, rent increases could exceed 3% from the year before if a park owner proves that the increase is necessary for resident health and safety, or if a resident-owned coop approves the rate. Resident of Cimarron mobile home park Brey Mafi, who is also president of the Cimarron Residents’ Association, said tighter regulations are needed. ADVERTISEMENT "Residents are faced with fear tactics and hostility from park management," Mafi said.
"Amenities and services are closing and [being] reduced year after year. " Mafi said annual evictions in the park have increased in frequency and that lot rent has gone up roughly 35% in five years, now costing $1,019 a month. Several park owners spoke out against the bill in committee hearings.
Minnesota Multi Housing Association President Cecil Smith said the rent control policy would lead to less housing construction in Minnesota. “The unintended consequences outweigh the benefits,” Smith said in a March 20 committee hearing. “While this proposal is narrowly focused on a specific type of housing, it will eventually mean broader avoidance and disinvestment in Minnesota’s housing market.
” Norris, who is the chief author of HF2381, said the rent increase limits in the bill are not comparable to rent control for apartments. Renters unhappy with the price of their apartment can move relatively easily, he said, but moving a manufactured home can be pricey. The average cost of relocating a manufactured home is $9,000, according to an October 2024 article by Forbes .
“If there's ever a time when it's appropriate for the government to step in and regulate a market, it's when you have a market like this that's so much more inefficient than the apartment market,” Norris said. Norris said he also wants to give manufactured homeowners a better chance at owning the land under their home. If passed, park owners would be required to give residents a 60-day notice of intent to sell the park and to consider any offers from residents to buy the land before it’s sold to an outside company.
ADVERTISEMENT When parks are owned by residents instead of private equity firms, it leads to better outcomes and prevents some “predatory behavior,” Norris added. Park Plaza Cooperative President Natividad Seefeld, who oversees a park owned by residents, mirrored Norris’s sentiments and said her community has improved the park without having to excessively raise rent costs. “We only have 81 families.
We don’t raise the rent every time a tree falls. We don’t raise the rent every time taxes go up,” Seefeld said in Tuesday’s committee. “If we can do it, we know others can do it.
” Park owners testifying to the committee expressed frustration over the mandatory sale notification section of HF2381. Owner of Mike Ives Realty Michelle Carlson, who operates six parks in the state, said the current sale notification requirements, approved in 2023, are working and the proposed changes give her less freedom to oversee her parks. “It’s a taking of property rights without just compensation.
The current notification of sale language is working. Let’s not end it,” Carlson said in Tuesday’s committee meeting. The bill also caps late fees at 8% of rent, mandates electronic methods for rent payment, prohibits charging residents for utility repairs and requires park owners to give residents an itemized list of fees.
The Senate version of the bill passed out of its committee on March 20 and is awaiting a hearing in the Commerce and Consumer Protection Committee. The House version was laid over for possible inclusion in a larger bill Tuesday in the Housing Finance and Policy Committee..
