Corporation doesn’t care about community

In reference to the article and the letter from Ruth Prece about the mobile home parks, this is about Rudgate Manor in Sterling Heights.

I moved in, in January 2005 living in a single used home I bought. The lot rent was the cheapest you could find anywhere. Being told up front the rent would go up about six percent every year, water same price for everyone up to 1000 cubic feet, maintenance of the park was pretty good and maintenance workers would even give a helping hand once in a while.

When the economy was falling 2008-09, Rudgate seized raising rent, as the economy came back 2011-12, Rudgate Manor was sold to SUN, which has raised the rent six and a half to seven percent every year since then right up to now. Water bill has been changed to gallons and is paid to them with the rent. Garbage pick up is going up to $12.50 a month in April and it was $5 12 years ago.

You must sign a new lease every year or pay $20 extra a month. They also changed to automatic withdrawal but if you insist on playing it, it must be a check and costs $10 a month. Maintenance employees are not allowed to help a resident without order from SUN or get fired. It took two years for them to remove a huge dying maple tree constantly giving residents problems.

They raise the rent but say it’s your property. If you rent or lease a trailer, they not only raise lot rent but raise it on the home too. Street plowing is becoming a gift and they usually can’t get down to the ground because of all the cracks and unevenness of the cement. They do very little road, driveway work now. No pool for a summer and a half (COVID repairs), parking lot mailbox lights out since August 2022.

All they care about is getting old trailers out, new ones in, double wides wherever they can.

Thomas Perry Sterling Heights