Standish mobile home park owners react to possible rent control ordinance
Karen and David McNutt, the owners of Westside Sebago Mobile Home Park in Standish, aren’t in the practice of raising their lot rents each year like the corporations that have bought many mobile home parks in Maine. They live locally and charge the cheapest lot rent in town at $400.
But now that a mobile home park rent control ordinance could be passed by Standish voters, they feel they have to raise rent to $450 for their 19 lots knowing they might lose their ability to do so in the future.
“I hate to go up, because we don’t really need to, but I feel we have to,” David McNutt said. “It’s almost like we’re being sucker-punched for not going up.”
Residents of Pine Tree Estates, the mobile home park in Standish owned by RHP Properties, successfully petitioned in recent weeks to place a mobile home park rent control ordinance on the November ballot in hopes it will protect them from rent increases that they said have become unaffordable and threatening to their livelihoods. Several Maine towns have passed similar measures.
Rents vary at Pine Tree Estates, with some of its 223 sites costing as high as $970 monthly. Joel Brown, president of RHP Properties, said lot rents for residents who lived in the park in 2019 when the company acquired it have increased an average of 5.3% per year.
If approved by voters, the ordinance would require mobile home park owners to petition a rent stabilization board and undergo a hearing process if they charge above the affordability threshold (which is defined as 40% of the median monthly Social Security income for Cumberland County), if they are proposing increasing rent by more than 3%, or if they want to increase by more than the most recent annual percentage change in the Consumer Price Index.
The owner would need to prove that any increase above those thresholds is necessary for a reasonable rate of return, or that it is necessary to cover operating expenses or improvements that directly benefit tenants.
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“It’s like hanging your laundry out. When you start showing the books to everybody, and so forth, it feels invasive,” David McNutt said.
The rent stabilization board would consist of a majority of Standish residents, all with experience reading financial statements.
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Owners of Maine mobile home parks raising rents, blame law designed to protect residents
Clifton and Carroll Shirley Marean own the 32-lot mobile home park Northeastern Estates in Standish, and said they have only increased rent roughly five times in the 42 years they have owned the park. Clifton said they won’t increase rent ahead of the ordinance because they already raised it from $500 to $525 earlier this year, but they believe the ordinance is unfair and that the town should not regulate local businesses.
“Don’t put us all in one basket — it’s not right,” Clifton said at Tuesday’s Standish Town Council meeting. “The park owner takes the hit.”
There is no state mandate on amounts of rent increases, but there is a law that mobile home park owners must notify residents that they are eligible for mediation discussions if an increase is 1% more than the Consumer Price Index. Those mediation discussions are non-binding, said Dan Neumann, a field organizer at the Maine Labor Climate Council.
Pine Tree Estates residents went to mediation negotiations with RHP Properties earlier this year, which resulted in a 4.3% rent increase for 2026 being reduced to 4.1%, according to the company. Residents have said they were not satisfied with that outcome.
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The state does prevent mobile home park owners from increase rent more than once a year, and they must provide residents with 90 days of notice before increasing rent.
Joel Brown, the president of RHP Properties, wrote in his statement that Pine Tree Estates will increase rent again in February, but did not specify by how much. If the ordinance passes, that proposed increase would be subject to its rules.
RHP Properties “appreciates the Town’s commitment to housing affordability,” according to Brown.
“We do not take rent increase decisions lightly, and our approach to pricing is designed to preserve long-term affordability for the residents who call Pine Tree Estates home,” Brown wrote, emphasizing that its park lot rents have remained more affordable than other forms of housing in the region.
Mobile home parks are essential sources of affordable housing, according to the proposed ordinance, but their residents face unique vulnerabilities to rent increases because they typically own their homes without owning the land underneath. If a resident faces eviction due to their inability to pay rent, they continue to accrue charges as long as their mobile home sits in the park.
Resident Michele Guilford said that has become a true fear for herself and other park residents.
“I believe in business,” Guilford said at the Tuesday Town Council meeting. “I also believe that a market is only truly free when both sides have a meaningful choice.”
A public hearing on the ballot item will take place at the Standish Municipal Center on Aug. 25 at 6 p.m.
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Tagged: housing, mobile home park, rent control
Madeleine is a community reporter for Gorham, Buxton and Standish. She started her journalism career in Vermont, where she reported for Seven Days and served as the editor-in-chief of Middlebury College's. More by Madeleine Kaptein
