Mobile home park residents hope new ordinance will protect them

Mobile home park residents hope ordinance will help

The residents of a local mobile home park are hoping that a new city ordinance will help them with rising rental rates and a lack of maintenance.

ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — For residents in Albuquerque Meadows the fight for protection started ever since an out-of-state company bought the land their community sits on.

That was in 2021, and since then residents said their rent has gone up significantly while necessary fixes and upkeep have diminished.

But now, they have hope.

“I remember at least three times coming to you talking about this, and so it’s great because we’re finally actually doing something about it,” said Albuquerque mayor Tim Keller.

And with that signature, the latest ordinance in Albuquerque is officially in place, providing more protections for manufactured homes.

Often called mobile homes, residents in manufactured homes typically own the house but rent the land it sits on.

“The bill itself is the first step in us trying to inform Legacy that the community cares and the community wants Legacy to support us or give us the right to do what we need to do ourselves,” said Alfred Des Diaz, the president of the Albuquerque Meadows 55+ Community Association.

It’s a fight years in the making. In February 2024, 4 Investigates revealed the troubling trend of out-of-state companies buying mobile home parks to turn them into money makers.

“The first thing they started doing was raising our rent, decreasing our property values by not keeping up the property, firing all the staff that they had that knew how to keep up the property,” said Rochelle Smith, an advocate for Albuquerque Meadows.

For Smith and residents in the Albuquerque Meadows mobile home community, that company is Legacy Communities. The Florida-based company bought the community’s land back in 2021.

Since then, they’ve raised the rent to more than $1,000 a month.

“Their current rent right now is $1,030 per month for new residents coming in,” Smith said. “And if you go around and look at this little piece of dirt, it’s just, it’s outrageous.”

It’s a price that Smith and Diaz argued many can’t afford in their 55+ community.

“People have moved out in the last two years because they can’t afford it,” Diaz said. “And as Rochelle said, we have a lot of people that have cut back on important goods like prescriptions and food.”

Now “The manufactured home community stability and empowerment ordinance” does what the name implies: give residents more say.

“If the landowner decides he wants to sell the land, we as a community, would buy the entire land itself for the entire community, and then we would set the rules and the guidelines,” Diaz said.

KOB 4 News reached out to Legacy Communities but have yet to hear back.

The ordinance, sponsored by city councilor Nichole Rogers, doesn’t give mobile homeowners the first right of refusal but it will prevent them from being surprised when new owners make changes to rental rates.

Now residents at Albuquerque Meadows hope they can get protections on a statewide level.