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Residents and owners spar over bill to clarify rent rules for manufactured-home communities
Summary
Representative Rich Haggerty convened a hybrid hearing that included contested testimony about House Bill 14‑75, which backers say clarifies rent rules for manufactured‑home communities after a Supreme Judicial Court ruling and which residents say would advantage corporate owners and worsen affordability.
Representative Rich Haggerty, House chair of the Joint Committee on Housing, convened a hybrid hearing focused in part on manufactured‑housing legislation that residents and owners say will shape affordability for thousands of households across the Commonwealth.
The most contested measure, House Bill 14‑75, would alter how communities set base lot rents. Supporters, including Andrea Knowles, an attorney who represents Hometown America, said the bill provides guidance after the Supreme Judicial Court’s decision in Blake. “The S.J.C. found … that charging tenants different rents based on the time they enter into a community is presumptively unfair under the Manufactured Housing Act,” Knowles told the committee, and she said HB 14‑75 “is very narrowly tailored to resolve the disruption and uncertainty that Blake caused.”
Opponents — residents, local elected officials and tenant advocates — urged the committee to oppose HB…
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