In a follow-up to a subject we\u2019ve been following for years…<\/p>\n
Manufactured-home owners got a recent boost during Gov. Josh Shapiro’s budget address. As stalled legislation is set to run out of time, Shapiro is urging action, as are many living in those communities.<\/p>\n
“We\u2019re paying a lot of attention. I mean, they\u2019re our lifeline,” said manufactured-home resident Reggie Hockenberry.<\/p>\n
He is referring to multiple state bills that address the manufactured-home community.<\/p>\n
“Our bills have been in legislation in front of the Urban Affairs and Housing Committee since June of 2025,” he added.<\/p>\n
That committee includes Lehigh Valley Sens. Jarrett Coleman, a Republican, and Nick Miller, a Democrat. If not voted on this year, the bills expire.<\/p>\n
“About 36% of the residents are widows. They\u2019re going to be priced out of their homes. There\u2019s no two ways about it,” said Bob Besecker.<\/p>\n
He is the founder of the Coalition of Manufactured Home Communities of Pennsylvania. Across Pennsylvania, there are over 2,200 of these communities\u2014where residents own the home but rent the land it\u2019s on. Private equity firms are buying more and more; some residents have seen yearly rate hikes as high as 50%, many of them on fixed incomes.<\/p>\n
“It\u2019s not a crisis that\u2019s coming. It\u2019s a crisis that\u2019s here now,” Besecker said.<\/p>\n
Besecker\u2019s legal team helped shape legislation that would cap rate hikes and protect “mom and pop” community owners without using taxpayer funds. Gov. Shapiro spoke on the need during his budget address. Besecker said he spoke to the governor shortly after.<\/p>\n
“The one question I had for him over and above everything else is, when this legislation hits your desk, will you sign it? And his response was absolutely he would sign it,” he said.<\/p>\n
Sen. Judy Schwank, a Democrat who sponsored the Senate bills, told us that with the governor’s support, there is an opportunity to get something in the codes bill without a vote on her standalone Senate bills. Without action, Hockenberry says home values will continue to decrease, trapping those who can no longer afford the land beneath them.<\/p>\n
“Potential buyers are put off by the idea of these significantly high lot rents. There\u2019s no end in sight,” he stressed.<\/p>\n
If there\u2019s no legislative action, Besecker has this warning:<\/p>\n
“It\u2019s the type of thing that has turned many a majority party into a minority party,” he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"In a follow-up to a subject we\u2019ve been following for years… Manufactured-home owners got a recent boost during…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":113438,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[214,279,805,434,28,30,29,7445,7446],"class_list":{"0":"post-113437","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-pennsylvania","8":"tag-_homepage_top_stories","9":"tag-berks","10":"tag-lehighvalley","11":"tag-northampton-county","12":"tag-pennsylvania","13":"tag-pennsylvania-headlines","14":"tag-pennsylvania-news","15":"tag-poconos-coal","16":"tag-southeastern-pa"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=113437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/113437\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/113438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=113437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=113437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=113437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}