We can't take a partial payment.ĪRNOLD: Mary couldn't just move her home. HUNT: I went in and said OK, well, you know, I've got this money right now. HUNT: Water's about 35, something like that.ĪRNOLD: Then there's the sewer fee, the trash fee, the administration fee. And Havenpark raised that to more than $400 and then tacked on new monthly fees. She says a few years ago her lot rent was less than $350 a month. And it's been buying up mobile home parks across a bunch of different states. I take it down, no problem.ĪRNOLD: But then the park was bought up by a real estate investment firm called Havenpark Communities. I'll bring the rest, you know, next week or whatever.
I would call up and say, hey, look, I've got half the rent. HUNT: Stan and Nancy were the ones before. And when money was tight, the couple that managed the park lived right here. And the thing about mobile home parks is that even if you own your house outright, which Mary does, you still have to pay rent on the little plot of land that it sits on. She makes just $10 an hour driving people to doctor's visits. I've lived here almost 35 years.ĪRNOLD: Hunt's 51. MARY HUNT: It's a double-wide, so there is a lot of room. Others, like Mary's, are more like trailers up on foundations. There are something like 120 mobile or manufactured homes here. A few years ago, it was bought up by one of these big companies.
NPR's Chris Arnold reports for our Planet Money team.ĬHRIS ARNOLD, BYLINE: Mary Hunt lives in a mobile home park in Swartz Creek, Mich. And the government is helping them do it. They raise fees and rents for the land under these homes and then evict people who can't pay. But some investors are buying up mobile home parks. Millions of Americans live in mobile home parks because they're the most affordable way for them to keep a roof over their heads.
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