JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – For many, mobile home parks are one of the last options for stable, lower-cost living.
But a new public health report by Human Impact Partners and Manufactured Housing Action paints a disturbing picture, accusing one of the nation’s largest mobile home park owners of transforming affordable communities into hazardous ones.
From contaminated water to skyrocketing rents and crumbling infrastructure, the report says some Florida residents are paying the price with their health.
It’s a sweeping problem across the state of Florida.
MORE | Report: Florida residents in manufactured home parks face steep rent hikes, neglect by corporate landlords
The report accuses one of the country’s largest manufactured home park owners of neglecting Florida communities, creating unsafe and unsanitary conditions that are endangering residents’ health.
Homes of America owns more than 60 communities in Florida alone. But it’s not just their properties where residents are facing steep rent hikes and neglect.
“The floor is coming up. Mold is terrible. My doctor told me to move, but on mine and his income is less than $2,000 with the both of us pulling together, we couldn’t pull that any more than that. So, you’re forced to live in this,” said one resident at a Jacksonville mobile home community.
News4JAX is concealing the woman’s identity because she fears her landlord may raise her rent prices even more for speaking out. She’s renting a manufactured home in Jacksonville that she says is worse for wear.
“I can’t even begin to tell you what is wrong with this house, but there’s no overhang on this trailer. When it rains, it rains in the doors. It comes through the windows. Mold is on the walls. You have to keep washing walls and bleach inside,” she said. “We were supposed to pay $800 [in rent]. Well, now every time I turn around, there’s more than that.”
On top of the lot rent increases, she said she’s been hit with junk fees.
“Yes, a junk fee is probably just the word you’d want to use, because I don’t understand. But it’s not just me, honey. It’s everybody in this neighborhood, everybody,” she said.
This was supposed to be an affordable place to live on her fixed income. But every month, she says it’s becoming more unaffordable and she’s worried she could be priced out.
Mobile home resident Gerard said he pays $700 just to rent his lot. He owns his trailer.
Those who are paying lot rent, like Gerard, are paying almost as much as the tenants who are renting both the trailer and the land.
“I don’t think it should be near that high, the problems we’re having out here are terrible,” Gerard said. “700 plus dollars to live here, and I find that a lot of money just to park a trailer. And you pay your own electric, your own water. There’s no benefit of being here other than having your trailer parked.”
There are not many other rental options under $1,000 in Florida.
Median rent for housing seekers was $1,555 in July of 2024, according to research from the University of Florida.
And the state has only 26 affordable and available rental units for every 100 households with incomes that are below 30% of the area’s median income.
That leaves residents with lower incomes forced to live in hazardous conditions.
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