mobile homes

City councilors Tuesday night cited reports from residents who said their mobile home lot rents had more than doubled over the last five years — and that quickly escalating rates presented a crisis for some.

The residents at Friendly Village Mobile Home Park in Gorham made three different offers to purchase the property. All three were rejected, including a $27.5 million offer, according to resident cooperative president Dawn Beaulieu.

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 measure was intended to help more than 300 residents of Friendly Village Mobile Home Park in Gorham, who are trying to buy their community.

Housing advocates have said that the bills will support Maine resident cooperatives in purchasing their parks and prevent large, out-of-state real estate investors from coming into the state.

Residents of the Cedar Falls Mobile Home Park voted over the weekend to purchase their community for $8 million.

The referendum was written by residents who tried unsuccessfully to purchase their parks for more than $40 million this past spring.

The residents of the Linnhaven Mobile Home Center, now the Blueberry Fields Cooperative, appear to be the first to successfully use a new Maine law requiring that mobile home residents be given advance notice of a park sale.

Gov. Janet Mills and other state and local leaders are planning to celebrate with residents this week.

Out-of-state investors are in the process of purchasing several large parks in southern Maine for tens of millions of dollars each, leaving nearly 700 households wondering whether the new owners will increase the rent or evict them from their homes.