People either have to cut back, Marsh said, or try to sell their home and search for somewhere else to live in a tight housing market.
"Our manufactured home parks are not places generally where people with huge resources have come to live," she said. "They are places where our working people, retired people, first-time homeowners have come because they have an opportunity to get into the market."
The bill would limit annual rent increases to 6% at parks with more than 30 homes, which is lower than permits.
For parks with fewer than 30 homes, rent increases would be limited to the lower of 10% or 7% plus inflation, the same as most other Oregon rentals.
Marsh hopes this will keep mobile homeowners from being priced out.
"We are seeing an increasing number of manufactured home parks that are being purchased by out-of-state entities, by investment pools," she said. "The big investment firms are pushing the rent on these residents 鈥� again, who own their own homes and cannot move 鈥� up to maximum levels, and the residents are just panicked that they won't be able to stay in their homes."
However, the bill has received pushback from park owners, who say it would make it harder for them to operate as they face increasing costs.
"This is unsustainable without our annual rent increases that cover the increased cost associated with living expenses and property maintenance," wrote Todd Harpst in testimony to the House Committee on Housing and Homelessness in February. In his letter, he says his company operates properties throughout Oregon.
"We will be unable to pay for improvements, our mortgage, property taxes or payroll. This cascading economic impact would be devastating for the housing industry and the broader economy."
Harpst did not respond to a request for comment Wednesday.
Casey Shen also contributed testimony opposing the bill, as a manufactured home community owner.
"Why is the onus on us, the Landlord, to not only provide one of the most affordable housing options in the state, but now we have to do this with increasing expenses? What other options do I have as I attempt to stay in business?" the testimony reads. "The reality is that our communities, as they age, have increasing repair costs and vendors are becoming increasingly more expensive, as well as utility providers increasing utility costs year over year by exorbitant amounts."
Marsh said she has worked with park owners to edit the bill since it was first introduced in order to address some of their concerns.
"The bill no longer has any kind of limit on the rent increases that can happen between tenancies," she said. "We think this is a major benefit to park owners because we heard very clearly from them that that's how they get units up to market rate."
The bill is currently in the Senate Committee on Housing and Development.
