Mobile Home Residents Demand Justice

Exploited Mobile Home Residents Demand Justice in Central Massachusetts

Cease-and-Desist Letter Issued to Landlord Following Exorbitant Rent Increases, Dangerous and Unsanitary Conditions 

Lawyers for Civil Rights (“LCR”) issued a cease-and-desist letter to the landlord of two mobile home parks in Auburn, MA, demanding a halt to illegal and exorbitant rent increases and citing dangerous conditions allowed to fester at the parks.  Residents of the two parks—American Mobile Home Park (“American”) and Whispering Pine Estates—are primarily senior citizens and others on low and fixed incomes due to disability and advanced age. They are among the most vulnerable people in the Commonwealth, especially given the ongoing and intractable affordable housing crisis.

The cease-and-desist letter outlines how the landlord—a national company called Parakeet Communities (“Parakeet”)—has repeatedly harmed the parks’ residents in pursuit of profit. Just as the 2023 holiday season was approaching, Parakeet sent residents new leases imposing huge rent increases, upwards of twenty-five to forty percent, on residents. These outrageous hikes are not only preventing low-income residents from affording basic necessities, but they are also illegal as the new lease offers violate Massachusetts’ prohibition on “unfair” business practices.

The letter also details how Parakeet has failed to maintain the mobile home parks as legally required, exposing low-income senior citizens to dangerous and unsanitary conditions, including heating oil shortages and icy roads during winter storms along with a constantly overflowing dumpster. The letter also notes that this landlord’s failures are not isolated, and will only continue without a robust and immediate response. 

In a companion letter sent to the Board of Selectmen of the Town of Auburn, LCR called upon town officials to exercise their authority under well-established state law to pass a rent control ordinance for mobile home parks. Many Massachusetts towns have already done so, and Auburn must follow suit for the good of its residents.

Both the Massachusetts Legislature and Commonwealth’s highest court, the Supreme Judicial Court, have recognized that mobile home park residents should be protected from exploitation by park owners. Through the letters, LCR is taking bold action to do just that. 

Click here to download the landlord letter.

Click here to download the Auburn letter.

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Auburn-Letter-FINAL