Prices for locals to rent spaces for mobile and manufactured homes in Reno have gone up in recent years from the $500s to over $1000, while residents complain of deteriorating services, exacerbating a housing crisis even more.
The parks which used to be owned by individuals are increasingly being taken over by out of state corporate investors, who are pricing out many seniors and others on fixed incomes.
One current resident on fixed disability payments with her husband shared with us anonymously that the mobile park she lives in, in the McCarran and Longley area, was recently taken over by Cobblestone Property Management.
She worked for years in insurance billing in the medical and food industries, helping out the unhoused in her free time, but says she and others might soon be the ones needing the help.
While legislative efforts are underway at the state level for rent stabilization for mobile home parks, the person we spoke to anonymously believes these efforts are too little, too late, and might not end up being put into law anyway.
With the bad weather, the person we interviewed said they were snowed in for days with their location away from exit areas, making it especially inconvenient and even dangerous for the elderly and the disabled. She said there used to be security that would drive around at night, which no longer exists. Personal mailboxes have been busted in, she said, and are now caged in, and outgoing mail needs to be dropped off at another location.
With COVID assistance programs being reduced, she said it’s an increasingly tough road, and she fears many of her neighbors will become unhoused in future months.
She has her own ideas to make the situation better. “We have open space. We could have a community garden in our park to feed the people, that we have, people that are on meals on wheels.”
She says she’d like to see more co-op mobile home parks, which are owned solely by residents for the benefits of residents, set up like non profits. She is trying to organize current residents of Reno mobile parks to speak up and fight for their collective well being. She is active on social media, on different boards and contacts local authorities at the city, county and state levels, warning them of a possible tsunami of more homelessness.
“If it doesn't benefit me, maybe it'll benefit another senior,” she said of her constant efforts. “I’m in my mid fifties. Maybe this might save someone 10 years from now after I'm long gone. The elderly didn't choose to age. Those who became disabled didn't ask to become disabled,” she said.
“I hope that you never age and you never become disabled and you never have to desperately find a place to live,” she concluded. “The financial impact of us losing our homes is going to be more of a burden on the taxpayers. If we fall, we go all the way back down to zero and the cost to bring someone up from ground zero is a lot. I pray that you have good health because once it stops so does the world and you're irrelevant and you're a burden.”