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Meeting Public Comments

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SSB 3151
A bill for an act relating to property law, including mobile homes and manufactured housing, rental agreements, landlord and tenant remedies for retaliation, wrongful failure to provide essential services, rent increases, the sale of manufactured home community or mobile home park, the repeal of the manufactured home community and mobile home tax, forcible entry and detainer actions, abandoned mobile homes, and including effective date and applicability provisions.(See SF 2379.)
Agenda
Subcommittee members: Sinclair-CH, Dawson, Quirmbach
Date: Tuesday, March 1, 2022
Time: 5:00 PM - 5:30 PM
Location: Room 217 Conference Room
Comments Submitted:
The purpose of comments is to provide information to members of the subcommittee.
Names and comments are public records. Remaining information is considered a confidential record.

03-01-2022
Candance Evans []
Affordable Housing is in a crisis and yet Iowa Legislators have failed to provide protections for Iowans that live in Manufactured Home Parks. The Iowa House is taking the stand that these wealthy out of state corporations are facing increased expenses. Legislators will continue to protect wealthy corporations defending their decision to do so by saying that these corporations have increasing expenses. Insurance was mentioned. Well, our home gas bills more than doubled. Our groceries, home insurance, health insurance and gasoline increased. Yet residents of manufactured home communities living in what once was known as affordable housing are expected to shoulder the burden of any inflation and prop up the wealthy park owners, so they continue to see huge profits. Many residents in a Manufactured Home Community are elderly on a fixed income, disabled on a fixed income. And there is not extra at the end of the month in a budget on fixed income. And yet Iowa government thinks the right thing to do is to take more from those that have less. How is that considered to be a moral justification in the minds of Iowa Legislators to ignore Iowans that face losing their home? Allowing an extreme amount of profit to be protected for the super wealthy, and for the Manufactured Home Residents NO PROTECTIONS!We are all facing increases. Our rent will increase AGAIN on April 1st. Bringing our rent increases, since the private Equity group purchased us, to a 73% increase! Our expenses are going up as well. I ask Iowa Senators, have Park Owners expenses increased by 73%? Because that is only one of the increases residents faces, and that 73% in our rent came from the Park Owners!
03-01-2022
Heather Hix []
I am sure there are many heartbreaking stories coming to you from mobile home park residents. The park where I live was only recently purchased by an outofstate investment firm. I guess youll get my sad story in a couple of years if our Iowa legislators do nothing to protect us. I am a disabled senior citizen who worked as a registered nurse for nearly thirty years until a disabling illness ended my ability to work. Due to medical expenses, I eventually realized I needed to sell the house I owned in Iowa City and buy a mobile home. Now I wish I hadnt. But Im half ScotsIrish and my dad was a bank president, so if you think Im going to just lie down and take it, you are wrong.Since the Republicans in our legislature have proven they have no interest in helping those who most need it, I am taking a different approach in this letter.Did you know that in Johnson County, outofstate investment firms now own 1,471 of the 2,194 spaces in mobile home parks, excluding MHPs in Iowa City? And did you know that already many of those residents have seen a rent increase of about $200.00 per month? The same will be true for the rest of usif not even higher rentwithin the next couple of years unless you take action to protect us with rent caps. $200.00 a month. I look at all the things I wont be buying when my rent goes up that much. Now multiply that by 1,471 homes in MHPs and you get $294,200.00 per month. Multiply that by twelve months and you get $3,530,400.00 per year that goes to the outofstate investors instead of into the local economy. And thats just Johnson County. I think the local business owners will care when they learn about this.$3,530,400.00. Per year. Think about that.Thankyou for your time.Heather HixIowa City, IA