Sanford council advances rent-stabilization ordinance after crowded public hearing where residents warned of homelessness

Sanford City Council on May 6 heard more than a dozen residents describe sharp lot-rent increases and plead with elected officials to pass a mobile-home lot rent-stabilization ordinance intended to limit future hikes and provide a formal process for larger increases.

"If this ordinance does not go in favor of the residents of the mobile home parks, it will be catastrophic, causing so many people to become homeless," said Michael Healy, a resident who testified during the hearing and asked the council to extend the emergency moratorium that currently protects parks from immediate increases.

The draft ordinance, presented by City Manager Steve Buck, adapts the state model (LD 1765) and would allow routine annual increases tied to the consumer price index for urban wage earners (CPI-W) but capped at 3%. It also would establish a five-member Rent Stabilization Board with two alternates to review petitions for larger increases and to evaluate park financials under specified standards.

Why it matters: Many mobile-home residents own their dwelling but lease the lot, a dynamic speakers described as "sticky" because moving a manufactured home is costly…