Manufactured homeowners brace for land rent spikes amid legislative stall
By Lauren Jessop | The Center Square contributor
(The Center Square) – Pennsylvania’s manufactured home owners need a miracle from the state Senate.
And quickly.
Legislation meant to soften the blow of land rent increases remains stalled in the upper chamber amid a particularly tense session gridlock. This leaves some owners facing rent hikes of up to 50% and creates a financial crisis for them.
Impacted residents are anxious and have reached out to their representatives, who are trying to help, though lay the blame on Senate inaction.
House Bill 1250, sponsored by Rep. Liz Hanbidge, D-Blue Bell, passed the lower chamber in June, with a 144-59 vote, including support from 42 Republicans. That same month, Sen. Judy Schwank, D-Reading, introduced companion legislation, Senate Bills 745 and 746. All now await consideration by the Senate Urban Affairs and Housing Committee.
Like HB 1250, Swank’s bills would tie lot rent increases to the consumer price index, while allowing additional increases to cover extraordinary operating expenses or repairs.
Manufactured homeowners typically own their homes, but not the land beneath them. Increasingly, private equity firms are acquiring manufactured home communities, or MHCs, and drastically raising land rents.
The bipartisan support received so far encourages the bills’ advocates, but the delay in passing them is creating serious financial issues for some of the Commonwealth’s most vulnerable residents.
On Aug. 4, homeowners in the Village of Willow Run, a 55+ community with 149 sites in Limerick, were notified their monthly land rent would jump nearly 50% on Sept. 1 – from $615 to $925 – with an added $27 fee for trash, which was previously included.
The increases have prompted calls for action from residents and lawmakers alike.
When he moved there in 2015, Dan Verbo, president of Willow Run Community Association, told The Center Square he was assured increases would keep pace with Social Security cost-of-living adjustments.
His records show that Limerick Village LP and Longview Property Group has owned the community since 1995. Annual increases up until 2020 were under 2%, and from 2021 to 2024, they gradually rose to 7.9%.
Selling and moving is not a viable option with less than 30 days’ notice, and although many of the homes in this community are built on trailers, they are not movable.
Verbo says they have three goals: declare a state of emergency to freeze the rent hikes; pass the bills in the Senate; and raise public awareness of the issue, which he links to the broader housing shortage crisis.
“This could happen to anybody – your children, your parents, your grandparents,” he said.
While not a monopoly yet, if not addressed, private equity firms and large landlords could gain overwhelming financial control – not just over renters, but homeowners as well.
“This is the tip of the iceberg,” he said.
Rep. Joe Ciresi, D-Royersford, met with Willow Run homeowners and told The Center Square that he and his staff have explored every available option to assist them. Calling it a housing crisis, he also sent a letter to Gov. Josh Shapiro requesting a state of emergency and is urging his colleagues to support the effort.
When a bill of such significance passes in one chamber, he said, it needs to be passed in the other just as quickly – and this bill is an example of the consequences of not doing that.
He also noted in this case, land rents jumped nearly 50% despite homeowners handling most maintenance themselves.
Ciresi said we’re not begrudging business owners the right to make money, but they knew these communities primarily house senior citizens on fixed incomes. “When [Rep] Dan Moul, a manufactured home community owner himself, stands on the House floor and tells his colleagues to support the bill because it’s the morally right thing to do, that says a lot.”
“It’s disgusting that they would do something like this,” he said. “If expenses have gone up so much, why don’t they call a meeting with the homeowners to explain why it’s happening?”
It’s unknown whether the timing of this and other similar increases is merely coincidental or driven by fear that the bills might pass, said Ciresi.
He stressed that while these actions are currently legal, they wouldn’t be if the Senate had passed the bills alongside the House. He also noted that prior versions of the bill had waited in committee for two years.
Schwank blames Senate Republicans for dragging their feet on the legislation.
“Democrats and Republicans came together back in June to pass HB 1250, which would protect manufactured home residents from the scenario playing out in Limerick,” Schwank told the Center Square via email.
She said Senate Republicans have not shown interest in moving that bill or considering the ones she introduced.
“Their inaction has real consequences for manufactured homeowners in Limerick and beyond – and this will continue to play out across our commonwealth until we implement a legislative fix. The Senate Republicans need to go on the record about where they stand on this issue.”
Sen. Tracy Pennycuick, R-Red Hill, who represents Limerick and initially cosponsored Schwank’s bills, later reversed her position in February, telling the Reading Eagle the measures amounted to rent control, which she said defies the state constitution.
Dan Vitek, an attorney with the nonprofit Community Justice Project, is confident that a law allowing for reasonable rent increases to cover owners’ operating costs and affording profitability for the owners, while protecting the homeowners from price gouging on lot rent, “is constitutional and fully within the power of this legislature to act.”
The Coalition of Manufactured Home Communities of Pennsylvania, now representing nearly 100 member communities, has been instrumental in rallying support for the bills and plans to continue its advocacy.
Longview Property Group and Pennycuick did not respond to requests for comment in time for publication.
