Governor signs Sen. Reny bill to establish and fund the Manufactured Housing Community and Mobile Home Park Preservation and Assistance Fund
AUGUSTA — On Friday, June 20, Gov. Janet Mills signed LD 1016, “An Act to Establish the Manufactured Housing Community and Mobile Home Park Preservation and Assistance Fund,” into law. This bill, sponsored by Sen. Cameron Reny, D-Bristol, will support the affordability of manufactured housing communities and mobile home parks.
“Maine now has another tool to preserve affordable housing in the mobile home and manufactured home communities where many older Mainers, low-income families, and veterans live,” said Sen. Reny. “Private equity investors who buy up mobile home parks and raise rents will now have to pay their fair share and help preserve affordable housing here in Maine. We’ve succeeded in making the Manufactured Housing Community and Mobile Home Park Preservation and Assistance Fund permanent, paving the way for hundreds more units in mobile home communities to remain in the hands of residents and local owners.”
The Manufactured Housing Community and Mobile Home Park Preservation and Assistance Fund is currently a temporary fund, authorized by last year’s supplemental budget. Its purpose is to maintain housing affordability in manufactured housing communities and mobile home parks, and to support ownership of manufactured housing communities and mobile home parks by owners’ associations, resident-owned housing cooperatives, or other nonprofit entities. So far, this fund has helped residents of three Maine communities purchase their parks, preserving over 440 units of affordable housing.
When it takes effect, LD 1016 will make the fund permanent, funded by a fee of $10,000 per lot paid by certain buyers of manufactured housing communities or mobile home parks. The bill directs the Maine State Housing Authority to administer the fund.
State and municipal housing authorities, resident/owner cooperatives, and smaller companies and individuals with a net worth less than $50 million will be exempt from the fee. Structuring the fee in this way will encourage ownership of mobile home parks by smaller local businesses or residents themselves.
LD 1016 will take effect 90 days after the First Special Session of the 132nd Maine State Legislature adjourns sine die.
Sen. Reny represents Maine Senate District 13, which includes most of Lincoln County and the towns of Washington and Windsor.
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