Waterville city councilors unanimously passed a temporary moratorium on lot rent increases for mobile home park residents.
City officials said the ordinance is in response to a 20% rent increase at two parks that was set to go into effect in October, after lot rent went up 22% the year before.
Joe Lemieux lives in Countryside Park, where he said the rent was supposed to reach $600 a month this fall.
"The majority of the people who live in these trailer parks are in the lower end of the income, working people," he told Waterville city councilors at a meeting earlier this week. "Several of us are retirees on a fixed income. Several of us that are on a fixed income had to go take a second job to pay for these things."
Waterville officials say the moratorium is intended to protect residents through at least April, while a state working group develops a rent stabilization measure for mobile home parks that municipalities around Maine could later adopt.
The city of Sanford is also expected to consider a proposed rent control ordinance for mobile home park residents later this month.
Old Orchard Beach appears to have the only municipal rent control ordinance on the books for mobile home park residents. Voters there approved a referendum last November, which caps annual lot rent increases for residents at 5%, with some exceptions.
