‘They are squeezing everybody in this park to death’: Owners of manufactured homes get little protection as private equity moves in

Wisconsin residents feel stuck as private equity buys up manufactured housing parks

Priced out of traditional homes during an affordability crisis, many in Wisconsin have found another way to pursue an ownership dream.

Experts estimate that more than 100,000 Wisconsin residents live in manufactured homes, the more accurate name for what many call mobile homes or trailers — structures that make up the country’s largest portion of unsubsidized low-income housing. Many live in parks where they own their homes but rent the land beneath them. 

But Wisconsin’s government is failing to enforce basic protections for residents at a time when private equity firms are buying up parks to maximize profits, a Wisconsin Watch/WPR investigation found...

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Ken Notes: This is so true and happening across the state. These private equity firms are buying these parks as cash producing assets with no real skin in the game or feet on the ground. If current tenants fail, the firms can put in a nicer park model and make even more money by renting that as well as the lot. We need communities and housing advocates to buy these parks and turn these places into something special. There are great examples of well developed and run parks across the US.