WATERVILLE — The city has taken a first step toward protecting mobile home park residents facing steep and, for many, unaffordable lot rental increases.

The City Council voted 6-0 Tuesday to put a 6-month freeze on increases that residents of Countryside Mobile Home Park say are pushing them to the brink. They said they would be unable to pay the monthly mortgages on their homes, in addition to sewer, water, trash disposal, electricity, a pet fee, property taxes and a proposed lot rental increase that was scheduled to go into effect Sept. 20, bringing their lot rent to $600.

Councilors agreed.

“It is predatory and inexcusable to raise the rates at the rate they’ve been going,” Council Chair Rebecca Green, D-Ward 4, said.

Councilors must take a second vote to finalize the moratorium and likely will take that vote in two weeks.

Joe and Loise Lemieux, 69 and 66, respectively, live in the Punky Meadows section of Countryside and attended Tuesday’s meeting. They expressed relief Wednesday at the council’s vote.

“They impressed me for the simple fact that they stood behind and supported the members of the trailer park,” Joe Lemieux said. “It gave me a sense that we do have people in the political arena that actually care for the people.”

C37 LLC, a private equity firm that owns Countryside, located off West River Road, and Pooler’s Parkway, off Grove Street, sent letters to residents of the parks, the only two mobile home parks in the city, informing them of the rate increase. Countryside has 263 homes and Pooler’s, 27, according to the city’s assessor’s office.

Residents say they have faced lot increases each year and the only services they receive are grass cutting and road plowing. They say they are stuck in their situation because moving is prohibitive, what with skyrocketing house costs, the cost for moving a mobile home estimated between $10,000-$15,000, the high cost to purchase land and add a well, if needed, as well as other necessities.

State Rep. Cassie Julia, a Democrat representing House District 65, which includes both mobile home parks, has been working with residents, Green, Mayor Mike Morris, acting City Manager Cornell Knight and others on the proposed moratorium to help protect park residents. City Solicitor William A. Lee drafted the language for the moratorium.

Julia sponsored LD 1765, a bill the state Legislature passed in June calling for the state to draft language for a model ordinance for rent stabilization that municipalities can use as a guide to produce their own ordinances. The state must develop the language by Dec. 30 this year. Julia said she worked with the governor’s housing director, Greg Payne, on the final version of the bill, which allows municipalities to adopt language that is right for them and avoids a fiscal note at the state level so there’s no cost to taxpayers.

A member of the Waterville Planning Board who serves on the state Housing and Economic Development Committee, Julia has worked on park issues and is aware of, and knowledgeable about, what residents have faced in the past.

She told councilors Tuesday that mobile home park residents who own their homes but not the land on which they sit are in a situation where their housing depends almost entirely on the willingness of park owners to be fair.

“Unfortunately, this does not seem to be the case or the priority for the private equity firm that owns the parks here,” Julia said.

Lot rental costs have doubled in the last six years, she said, and a lot of people are “staring down the barrel of foreclosures and homelessness.”

She noted that there are 600 mobile home parks in Maine, about 150 of those are owned by private equity firms, and many park owners are responsible and provide good services. Councilor Thomas Klepach, D-Ward 3, asked if she thought the legislation will deter people from developing new parks because while some owners are predatory, for many people such as those with lower incomes, a mobile home is the only housing option.

Julia said she put a lot of thought into that, and the last thing she wants to do is create a self-perpetuating situation where predatory firms buy out parks. Maine doesn’t have a lot of consumer protections in place because the issue is relatively new and the state is catching up, she said.

“I think Waterville has a great opportunity to set a precedent and an example for other towns that are struggling with this,” she said. “This is a widespread issue across Maine and across the country.”

Councilor Scott Beale, D-Ward 6, said he favors the moratorium but expressed concern about next steps and how the city would manage the issue.

Julia said the model language state experts develop will provide options that will make it easier for the city to manage it. Councilor Spencer Krigbaum, D-Ward 5, said he fully supported the moratorium because the situation is “predatory beyond anything that we could possibly even understand.”

“This is not acceptable in any shape or form, and so this is a problem where we do have to step in,” he said.

“I’m so pleased City Council voted unanimously to support a lot rent moratorium in the first round vote in order to explore the city’s options in helping protect park residents going forward,” Julia said Wednesday.

Lee, the city solicitor, told councilors that Portland has a general rent ordinance and Old Orchard Beach has a mobile home rental lot ordinance. Portland has a 7-member committee that reviews proposed lot increase complaints and Old Orchard chooses an arbitrator to listen to both sides.

Park resident Michael Brady told councilors a rental increase should be commensurate with services provided.

“Basically, they plow the roads and that’s it,” he said. “We don’t get anything else from them.”

Mark Hsu, a principal in C37 LLC, did not respond to an email sent Monday. He also did not immediately respond to an email sent Wednesday.