Rhonda West, a resident of an Oakland mobile home park, holds the petition she is using to collect signatures Monday outside the Dollar General in Oakland. After weeks of work, West and her fellow organizers collected enough signatures to get lot rent stabilization on the ballot. (Anna Chadwick/Staff Photographer)
OAKLAND — Months after the town first put a temporary hold on mobile home lot rent increases, an ordinance to stabilize that rent will be on the ballot in November.
Resident Rhonda West started work on a citizens initiative when the town said it would not pursue an ordinance to stabilize lot rent in May, citing a state law which does not stabilize rent.
West and her fellow mobile home residents worked with the Maine Peoples Alliance and the Maine Labor Climate Council, organizations involved in lot rent issues statewide, to get the issue on the ballot.
The petition needed 375 signatures, and Town Manager Kelly Pinney-Michaud announced at a council meeting Wednesday that West submitted enough. Four town officials verified the signatures, which West said took about a week and a half. Of the 440 signatures she handed in, the town found 380 came from registered Oakland voters.
West said it feels amazing to know the issue she’s fought so hard for will be up to voters in November. And she’s ready to campaign for rent stabilization.
West and her neighbor William Cochran, 76, are both on fixed incomes and own their mobile homes. Rent at Breens Mobile Home Park is currently $600 per lot, $215 higher than it was in November 2024.
Steep rent increases in mobile home parks have caused problems for residents across the state, and West said that if there’s another increase at Breens, she and at least four of her neighbors won’t be able to afford to stay in the park or to move the homes they own.
She said people sometimes compare the rent increases to property taxes going up every year — just something they should deal with. But she said the situation is more akin to taxes going up every month.
“If they raise it again we’re done,” West said. “We can’t stay here.”
West and her fellow organizers had to restart their signature collection efforts in June when they learned the paperwork town officials gave West wasn’t valid. They’d already gathered enough at that point.
Now that she’s finally done, West said she’s so happy.
“I’m very proud,” she said. “Now I want somebody to throw me a party.”
The lot rent issue has been contentious in Oakland. Pinney-Michaud scolded residents for speaking to a reporter about their dissatisfaction and the council voted to disband a committee created to identify challenges in mobile home parks and improve communication with lot owners.
Part of the committee’s work included bringing a dumpster to Breens, where West has lived without one for 17 years. Breens still doesn’t have a dumpster, West said.
“That was all to pacify us,” West said. “I’m sorry, I’m not stopping nothing.”
With the Maine People’s Alliance, West is heading to Augusta later this month, where she’ll help collect signatures for a similar initiative.
Meanwhile, Oakland will move to a third reading of an ordinance to improve health and safety in its mobile home parks.
The next town council meeting will be on Wednesday Aug. 12 at 6 p.m. in the fire station at 15 Fairfield St.