Jennifer Ludovice, a spokeswoman for Equity LifeStyle Properties — the owner of Colony Cove, where Calabrese lives — said the company works hard to “provide a community that residents are proud to call home.”
She added that rent increased an average of 4.2% annually between 2017 and 2026 and that its costs are “attractive compared to other housing options in the area.”
No bar on takeovers
There are 7.2 million occupied mobile homes across the U.S., accounting for 5.4% of the nation’s housing, according to census data. Many park residents are seniors on fixed incomes, people with disabilities and families with limited means. Most of the communities are in Southern states, such as Florida, Louisiana and Mississippi; in New Mexico, 15% of homes are manufactured housing, the highest percentage in the nation.
Although the costs of buying a manufactured home are rising, they remain well below what it costs to buy a new single-family home, data shows. The U.S. census says the cost of a new mobile home averaged $131,200 in 2025, compared with $530,000 on average for a new single-family home in 2025, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, which includes the cost of the land. Owners of mobile homes typically rent the land under their units and pay for utilities and homeowners association fees.
In January, President Donald Trump called for a moratorium on the purchase of single-family homes by institutional investors, contending that those purchases make it harder for people to achieve the American dream of homeownership. The 21st Century Road to Housing Act, which is moving through Congress, includes a ban on institutional investors purchasing single-family homes.
The bill contains no such prohibition on mobile home takeovers, and the president did not mention such purchases in his January order.
Some states are taking up the issue. Maine recently passed four laws protecting mobile home residents, including giving them the right of first refusal when their parks are for sale, allowing them to purchase the communities themselves. And the Michigan Senate recently passed a bill that would increase the regulation of mobile home parks, beefing up protections for residents. The bill is in the Michigan House.
‘Abandoned Trailer’ scheme
The black mold and eviction threats Brown says she experienced at Buck Island are not uncommon among residents at Homes of America communities in Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas, according to a lawsuit filed by a former employee in March.
Elvin Zapata, a regional manager overseeing Homes of America properties in those states from 2024 to 2025, filed suit against the company in 2025 alleging it fired him after he criticized its practices.
Zapata’s court filing said it was a company practice to conceal mold in units from residents, skipping professional remediation to save costs and prohibiting written documentation of mold in company records. He also said the company targeted renters with poor credit and low incomes to achieve occupancy quotas for its parks and that when the residents missed rent payments, it carried out immediate evictions.
