Citing a new state law that gives mobile home residents the ability to enter mediation with park owners, Oakland officials are abandoning an effort to restrict lot rent increases at the town’s mobile home parks.

But LD 2231, which goes into effect in July, won’t do what some residents of Oakland’s mobile home park are seeking — rent stabilization.

Now those residents are circulating a petition to put a rent-stabilization ordinance before town voters in November. In the meantime, the temporary ban on rent increases has been extended to Aug. 1.

Town Manager Kelly Pinney-Michaud said LD 2231 restricts lot rent increases to be a maximum of 1% higher than the Consumer Price Index, but Lorri Nandrea, an organizer with the Maine Labor Climate Council, said this is a misunderstanding of the law.

LD 2231 requires mobile home park owners increase rent only once a year and provide notice of the increases. If 51% or more of a park’s households disagree with a proposed rent increase, and the increase is over the CPI threshold, they can request mediation, which is nonbinding. So, mobile home park owners would not be legally bound to any increase amount agreed on in mediation.

The Maine Labor Climate Council is working to address Maine’s affordability crisis, and Nandrea said mediation has proved ineffective in the parks that have tried it, and she doesn’t know where confusion around the law is coming from.

“I think there has just been a total misunderstanding,” Nandrea said. “I know a lot of people have tried to correct this misunderstanding, myself included, but it seems to have persisted.”

Oakland is believed to be the only town in Maine where officials haven’t pursued an ordinance following a moratorium. Biddeford tabled a similar ordinance last week, which Nandrea attributed to confusion around LD 2231.

“We hope to reverse things in Biddeford, where the ordinance was only tabled,” Nandrea said. “In Oakland, there does seem to have been reluctance from the beginning.”

Now, Breens Mobile Home Park resident Rhonda West, 63, is starting a citizen’s initiative with the support of other residents to get lot rent stabilization on the ballot in November.

West and her neighbor William Cochran, 76, are both on fixed incomes and own their homes. Rent at Breens is currently $600 per lot, $215 higher than it was in November 2024.

“It should never have been allowed for a company to gouge people like that,” West said. “They’re literally raping us of our money every month.”

DISBANDING THE MOBILE HOME COMMITTEE

When Oakland placed a 90-day moratorium on rent increases in March, it also created a committee to identify challenges in mobile home parks, improve communication with lot owners and find solutions.

Many residents complained their parks were unclean, one lacked a dumpster, and that getting maintenance requests filled was difficult. Pinney-Michaud served as a point of contact between residents and property managers.

The committee made some progress with those concerns. Hidden Meadows Mobile Home Park had paving done, and Breens is scheduled to get a dumpster and road work soon.

But the council disbanded the committee on May 27 after four meetings, following Pinney-Michaud’s recommendation.

In that recommendation, she cited the May 18 committee meeting, when emotions were running high and some committee members started yelling. She also cited a Morning Sentinel story in which residents criticized the committee.

“They were pissed off because we went to the news,” West said last week.

Multiple sources said Pinney-Michaud told residents that speaking to the Morning Sentinel made the situation worse and that the content of the story was an embarrassment to the town, which Pinney-Michaud confirmed.

Pinney-Michaud said in an email that she was not upset with residents but was disappointed they felt frustrated while she felt the town was making progress, and had invested time and money on the problem.

Pinney-Michaud recommended the town council disband the committee at the next meeting, as it was not a good use of time, and she would be more productive working one-on-one with residents. At that meeting, she expressed her “extreme disappointment” in the article again.

Nandrea said this is consistent with a “paternalistic” attitude the Oakland Town Council has toward the mobile home residents. She said she’s heard council members describe residents as “childish,” and Pinney-Michaud repeatedly said residents were not completing their “homework” for the committee.

“I think there is an attitude on the part of the town council that the mobile home residents are somehow behaving in a way that’s immature, and that the town council’s responsibility is to encourage them to be more responsible,” Nandrea said. “In my experience with these residents, nothing could be further from the truth.”

Town officials weigh in

Town Councilor Bob Nutting said he would not have voted to support a rent stabilization ordinance, and it made sense to him to leave the question to a citizen’s initiative.

Nutting was critical of a rally residents held before a May 13 town council meeting, where they said they were frustrated with the council’s efforts.

“They did their rally, they badmouth the council … (it’s) a poor way to do it, I think,” Nutting said. “But they’re all gung ho for a cap and they certainly have the ability to press that issue with the ballot box.”

Nutting said while he believes the free market should regulate rent, he sympathizes with residents who can’t afford to leave their mobile home parks, and called it a tough situation. It costs thousands of dollars to move a mobile home, which the residents who are struggling to pay rent can little afford.

Councilor Kelly Roderick said she was disappointed the council couldn’t find “a path forward that would provide greater protections for residents of our manufactured housing communities, many of whom are among our town’s most vulnerable citizens.”

Roderick said she remains committed to working with residents and councilors to find solutions.

Meanwhile, Pinney-Michaud is still working to bridge the gap between residents and lot owners, and the town is drafting an ordinance to regulate property maintenance and health and safety in the parks.

Pinney-Michaud expects the ordinance, which would regulate both owners and residents, to have its first reading at the end of June, and a second reading in July.

Even with possible maintenance improvements, for West, the next step is obvious. Shehopes she and her fellow residents can collect the necessary 375 signatures from registered voters to get lot rent stabilization on the ballot.

“They can literally come over here and physically evict me, and I will still fight for the people,” West said.

West and her fellow residents plan to host a gathering for park residents on June 12. They’ll discuss an ordinance to stop extreme lot rent increases, but they’ll also have a barbecue, swimming and music. The event is set for 5:30-7:30 p.m. at Oakland Waterfront Park on Willey Point Road.