Sen. Reny bill to establish and fund the Manufactured Housing Community and Mobile Home Park Preservation and Assistance Fund heads to Governor’s desk

AUGUSTA — On Thursday, June 12, the Maine Senate voted to send LD 1016, “An Act to Establish the Manufactured Housing Community and Mobile Home Park Preservation and Assistance Fund,” to the Governor’s desk. This bill, sponsored by Sen. Cameron Reny, D-Bristol, would support the affordability of manufactured housing communities and mobile home parks.

“As private equity investors and wealthy companies continue to buy up mobile home parks, rents are skyrocketing and leaving Mainers with few options amidst our state’s affordable housing crisis,” said Sen. Reny. “This bill would make these out-of-state investors pay their fair share to preserve affordable housing here in Maine, in the mobile home and manufactured home communities where many older Mainers, low-income families, and veterans live. The fund that LD 1016 invests in is working — it has already preserved over 440 units of affordable housing. It’s time to make its impact permanent.”

The Manufactured Housing Community and Mobile Home Park Preservation and Assistance Fund is currently a temporary fund, authorized by last year’s supplemental budget, 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.

If it becomes law, LD 1016 would 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 would be exempt from the fee. Structuring the fee in this way would encourage ownership of mobile home parks by smaller local businesses or residents themselves.

LD 1016 now heads to the Governor’s desk, where she has ten days to sign it into law, allow it to become law without her signature or veto it.

Sen. Reny represents Maine Senate District 13, which includes most of Lincoln County and the towns of Washington and Windsor.

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