![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/43596389_20260513_OaklandRally_AllThree_8003.jpg\")
\t\t\tWilliam Cochran, left, speaks at a rally held by mobile home park residents before Wednesday’s Oakland Town Council meeting Wednesday. Shelby McFadden, center, and Rhonda West hold a banner behind him. (Joe Phelan\/Staff Photographer)<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWilliam Cochran, left, speaks at a rally held by mobile home park residents before Wednesday’s Oakland Town Council meeting Wednesday. Shelby McFadden, center, and Rhonda West hold a banner behind him. (Joe Phelan\/Staff Photographer)<\/p>\n
OAKLAND \u2014 Since Oakland passed a 90-day moratorium on mobile home park lot rent increases at the end of March, mobile home owners say they worry they\u2019re running out of time.<\/p>\n
At a rally before Wednesday\u2019s town council meeting, eight mobile home park residents said they are concerned that the town has made no progress toward a rent stabilization ordinance.<\/p>\n
On June 25, the temporary rent freeze will end. If the town hasn\u2019t extended the moratorium or passed an ordinance to stabilize rent, mobile home owners say they fear they\u2019ll lose their homes.<\/p>\n
As large, out-of-state corporations have bought mobile home parks across Maine, lot rents have increased dramatically. In response, some cities and towns have passed rent stabilization ordinances.<\/p>\n
In Oakland, many mobile home park tenants who own their homes are on fixed incomes. They say they now spend more than half their income on lot rents. <\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m supposed to be living out my golden years,\u201d Rhonda West, 63, a resident of Breens Mobile Home Park, said. West, who lives with her 11-year-old granddaughter, pays $600 per month in rent, which is $215 higher than it was in November 2024.<\/p>\n
If rent goes up again, West said she and her neighbors will have to start sleeping in tents.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe won\u2019t have a choice,\u201d West said.<\/p>\n
She said councilors want to pacify residents, but they have no intention of stabilizing rent.<\/p>\n
Caroline Clark, a community organizing fellow with the Maine People\u2019s Alliance,\u00a0said the council has \u201cnot been very friendly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Purchase this image<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cI think that residents in the parks are feeling like their representatives are not representing them,\u201d Clark said. \u201cSo I think at this point it\u2019s up to community members to rally behind residents.\u201d<\/p>\n Council Chair Mike Perkins and councilors Bob Nutting and Su Leigh did not immediately respond to requests for comment Thursday. <\/p>\n Councilor Dana Wrigley said Thursday he\u2019s waiting for the Mobile Home Park Committee, which is still meeting, to report back. <\/p>\n Councilor Kelly Roderick said Thursday she supports an ordinance, which would protect \u201cour citizens from corporate greed.\u201d<\/p>\n At Wednesday\u2019s meeting, Roderick asked the council to consider extending the moratorium to Aug. 1 and to consider a sample ordinance a mobile home owner submitted to the council in late March.<\/p>\n Perkins said a moratorium extension would be put on the agenda for the next meeting, and Town Manager Kelly Pinney-Michaud said she\u2019d send a copy of the submitted ordinance for councilors to consider.<\/p>\n Pinney-Michaud said when the moratorium passed in March that she would ask the town\u2019s code enforcement officer to start developing a mobile home park ordinance with rules for tenants and owners. <\/p>\n Leigh, who voted against the 90-day rent freeze, Roderick and Pinney-Michaud all sit on the Mobile Home Park Committee, alongside two park owners, four park residents and four Oakland residents who do not live in the parks. <\/p>\n The committee is intended to be a mediation\/fact-finding forum between park residents, park owners and the town of Oakland to produce practical, legally sound solutions. <\/p>\n The committee has met twice in April and once in May. Two more meetings are expected this month, including one Monday, when a proposed ordinance will be discussed.<\/p>\n Roderick said the committee is a great forum to discuss ideas and speak with park owners, but West said she doesn\u2019t feel heard in committee meetings.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve gone to the council meetings. We\u2019re not being heard,\u201d West said. \u201cWe\u2019ve got to do something. Something\u2019s got to be done. Enough is enough.\u201d<\/p>\n Purchase this image<\/a><\/p>\n Some mobile home owners are considering collecting signatures to petition to get a lot rent stabilization ordinance on the November ballot, depending on what action elected officials take.<\/p>\n West said she thinks Oakland residents will support the signature initiative. She doesn\u2019t have faith in the town council at this point, but she believes she and her neighbors can collect the signatures they need to get rent stabilization on the ballot.<\/p>\n Pinney-Michaud said the park residents are being heard, and that\u2019s the most important thing right now. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"William Cochran, left, speaks at a rally held by mobile home park residents before Wednesday’s Oakland Town Council…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":316185,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[143,145,144],"class_list":["post-316184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=316184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316184\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/316185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"](\"https:\/\/w2pcms.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/10\/2026\/05\/43596389_20260513_OaklandRally_West_7888.jpg\")
<\/a>Rhonda West speaks at a rally held by mobile home park residents before Wednesday\u2019s Oakland Town Council meeting. (Joe Phelan\/Staff Photographer)<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/dev.mainetodaymedia.com\/smugmug\/upload.php?data=%7B%22src%22%3A%22https%3A%5C%2F%5C%2Fwww.centralmaine.com%5C%2Fwp-content%5C%2Fuploads%5C%2Fsites%5C%2F2%5C%2F2026%5C%2F05%5C%2F43596389_20260513_OaklandRally_West_7888.jpg%22%2C%22caption%22%3A%22Rhonda%20West%20speaks%20at%20a%20rally%20held%20by%20mobile%20home%20park%20residents%20before%20Wednesday%27s%20Oakland%20Town%20Council%20meeting.%20%28Joe%20Phelan%5C%2FStaff%20Photographer%29%22%7D\")
<\/a>Shelby McFadden speaks at a rally held by mobile home park residents before Wednesday\u2019s Oakland Town Council meeting. (Joe Phelan\/Staff Photographer)<\/p>\n