OAKLAND — Since Oakland passed a 90-day moratorium on mobile home park lot rent increases at the end of March, mobile home owners say they worry they’re running out of time.

At a rally before Wednesday’s town council meeting, eight mobile home park residents said they are concerned that the town has made no progress toward a rent stabilization ordinance.

On June 25, the temporary rent freeze will end. If the town hasn’t extended the moratorium or passed an ordinance to stabilize rent, mobile home owners say they fear they’ll lose their homes.

As large, out-of-state corporations have bought mobile home parks across Maine, lot rents have increased dramatically. In response, some cities and towns have passed rent stabilization ordinances.

In Oakland, many mobile home park tenants who own their homes are on fixed incomes. They say they now spend more than half their income on lot rents.

“I’m supposed to be living out my golden years,” Rhonda West, 63, a resident of Breens Mobile Home Park, said. West, who lives with her 11-year-old granddaughter, pays $600 per month in rent, which is $215 higher than it was in November 2024.

If rent goes up again, West said she and her neighbors will have to start sleeping in tents.

“We won’t have a choice,” West said.

She said councilors want to pacify residents, but they have no intention of stabilizing rent.

Cheyenne Gallivan, communications director for the Maine Labor Climate Council, said the council has “not been very friendly.”

“I think that residents in the parks are feeling like their representatives are not representing them,” Gallivan said. “So I think at this point it’s up to community members to rally behind residents.”

Council Chair Mike Perkins and councilors Bob Nutting and Su Leigh did not immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday.

Councilor Dana Wrigley said Thursday he’s waiting for the Mobile Home Park Committee, which is still meeting, to report back.

Councilor Kelly Roderick said Thursday she supports an ordinance, which would protect “our citizens from corporate greed.”

At Wednesday’s meeting, Roderick asked the council to consider extending the moratorium to Aug. 1 and to consider a sample ordinance a mobile home owner submitted to the council in late March.

Perkins said a moratorium extension would be put on the agenda for the next meeting, and Town Manager Kelly Pinney-Michaud said she’d send a copy of the submitted ordinance for councilors to consider.

Pinney-Michaud said when the moratorium passed in March that she would ask the town’s code enforcement officer to start developing a mobile home park ordinance with rules for tenants and owners.

Leigh, who voted against the 90-day rent freeze, Roderick and Pinney-Michaud all sit on the Mobile Home Park Committee, alongside two park owners, four park residents and four Oakland residents who do not live in the parks.

The committee is intended to be a mediation/fact-finding forum between park residents, park owners and the town of Oakland to produce practical, legally sound solutions.

The committee has met twice in April and once in May. Two more meetings are expected this month, including one Monday, when a proposed ordinance will be discussed.

Roderick said the committee is a great forum to discuss ideas and speak with park owners, but West said she doesn’t feel heard in committee meetings.

“We’ve gone to the council meetings. We’re not being heard,” West said. “We’ve got to do something. Something’s got to be done. Enough is enough.”

Some mobile home owners are considering collecting signatures to petition to get a lot rent stabilization ordinance on the November ballot, depending on what action elected officials take.

West said she thinks Oakland residents will support the signature initiative. She doesn’t have faith in the town council at this point, but she believes she and her neighbors can collect the signatures they need to get rent stabilization on the ballot.

Pinney-Michaud said the park residents are being heard, and that’s the most important thing right now.

Editor’s note: This story was updated to update attribution of a quote to Cheyenne Gallivan.