Acting as the Mobile Home Park Rent Control Board, the board members expressed fears the financially-troubled Morgan Management might default on its mortgage and be unable to repair the water and drainage systems and the roads. Selectwoman Colleen Corona says, “I really don’t think right now that reducing the rent is going to improve conditions at the park.”
Morgan Management was giving a directive to submit a detailed repair plan within 30 days and the board would have 30 days to consider it. The work must be completed by June 15, 2015 including the removal of abandoned homes.
Some residents, weary after ten years of battling for a rent rollback, are skeptical the work will be done, but are relieved the selectmen have ordered the repairs to be made. A court-ordered rental freeze expired three years ago and Morgan raised the rents 33 percent, according to wickedlocal. The residents were evidently unable to purchase the community from Morgan for $5.5 million when it was offered. ##
(Editor’s Note: CBC News in Canada did an interesting report on the impact of rent control on the availability of affordable housing, see link here.)
(Photo credit: wickedlocal – Easton Mobile Home Park)
