Colonial Estates residents protest rent hikes
LANCASTER − Residents at a mobile home park in Lancaster are protesting rent increases and more.
Colonial Estates, a mobile home community in Lancaster, is facing backlash from its residents for rent increases and failure to keep up with maintenance needs around the park. Members of the community say that JRB Communities, the owner of Colonial Estates, has steadily increased lot rent in a neighborhood largely made up of senior citizens, people with disabilities, and others with fixed incomes.
JRB Communities operates out of Newport Beach, California.
Members of the Colonial Estates community protested recently at the front of the entrance to the neighborhood with signs that displayed messages against rent hikes.
Dan Wykle, a 63-year-old resident of Colonial Estates on a fixed income, has spent 12 years as a member of the community.
“Since we’ve lived here, the park has been owned by four different corporations,” said Wykle. “The current corporation (JRB Communities) and the corporation prior to that have been seemingly stuck on a $30 per month rent increase every year. There’s a lot of us in here, including myself, that too many more $30 rent increases and we’re not going to be able to live here. We moved here for the primary reason that it was affordable.”
Many of the residents at Colonial Estates are on fixed incomes.
“The problem is, each year when it goes up by huge chunks like that, our income isn’t going up that much,” said Wykle. “Matter of fact, it’s not going up much at all.”
Wykle emphasized Ohio’s lack of rent control laws and how that hurts people on fixed incomes. When he moved in, Wykle was paying $350 a month for rent, while his current
monthly rent is $619.
Hank Arledge, a 66-year-old resident of Colonial Estates on a fixed income, has lived in the community for 12 years.
Arledge said that his rent was $315 a month when he moved in, but it has now nearly doubled to $579 a month, with another increase to $609 a month coming soon.
“Two more raises at $30 a month and I can’t pay my utilities,” said Arledge.
If his rent continues to increase, Arledge said that he has no plan for where he can go to find affordable housing.
“They’re treating it like a gated community, but we are a mobile home park,” said Arledge.
Arledge also said that Colonial Estates is bad at addressing issues in the park that are causing problems for residents.
Dawn Hixenbaugh, a 67-year-old resident of Colonial Estates on a fixed income, is nearing her ninth year in the mobile park home.
She says that her rent has doubled since moving in.
When she moved in, Hixenbaugh’s rent was $315 a month, now her monthly rent is somewhere in the $610-619 range.
“We just want the awareness to get out there,” said Hixenbaugh. “It’s not just this mobile home park, this is happening across the country.”
The Lancaster Eagle-gazette reached out to the phone number listed on JRB Communities website and the person who answered the phone declined to comment.
“We just want it to stop, want to be able to live here and stay here and not have to worry about what we’re going to do if it prices us out,” said Hixenbaugh.
For many living in mobile home parks, that is their only option as far as housing goes.
“I know to a lot of people they think, ‘good grief, go try to find an apartment’, well that’s the whole point,” said Hixenbaugh. “If you can’t live in a mobile home park, most of us were not living our best lives as it was and that’s why we’re here. You don’t choose that usually, it was the only place we could rent. We need to make this work.”
Residents have sought help from Southeastern Ohio Legal Services to compel the park owners to address complaints such as overgrown trees they say have caused gas line disruptions, sewer backups and damage to mobile homes.
Caitlyn Mcdaniel, Ohio Justice For All Fellow at Southeastern Legal Services, is representing the residents of Colonial Estates.
“The purpose of the protest is the increase in rent,” said Mcdaniel. “They’re all kind of at different rent levels currently, but broadly speaking the park predominantly has residents who own their mobile homes and rent the lot underneath it from the park.”
While a rent increase of $30 a month may not sound like much to many people, it can be life-changing for many.
“For folks in this park, that’s a big increase because most of them are on fixed incomes,” said Mcdaniel. “Most of them are retired or people with disabilities who have fixed incomes from social security. Those who aren’t are lower-income families.”
Mcdaniel said that Southeastern Ohio Legal Services is exploring all legal options for the residents of Colonial Estates.
Mcdaniel said that rent control is banned in Ohio, so JRB Communities has the legal right to increase rent. However,
residents are seeing rent increases without increases to the quality of service around the park.
“They can increase the rent, and we don’t have as many options to fight that, legally speaking,” said Mcdaniel. “But it’s difficult for the residents because they’re seeing these increases and not seeing, on the other hand, improvements to the park. They’re still having the same sort of conditions issues, having a lot of the same roads that aren’t in great conditions, trees that aren’t being properly being maintained causing hazards to the mobile homes and the residents, various issues at the park that aren’t being addressed.”
According to Mcdaniel, the residents believe that rent should not increase if there is not an increase in resources put into the upkeep of the community.
For Southeastern Ohio Legal Services, the fight for affordable housing was what inspired them to take on this case.
“I think for us, it comes down to affordable housing,” said Mcdaniel. “Making sure that housing in our service area, which is Southeast Ohio, is accessible, safe, and affordable. Obviously, with rent increases, housing is increasingly less and less affordable. People are spending more and more of their income on housing and that’s a really big problem.”
For many of the residents, the mobile home park is the only place they can afford in the city. If prices continue to increase, many people could be forced out of Lancaster.
“Not only is it affordable housing, but it’s accessible in that it’s in town,” said Mcdaniel. “There’s a lot of amenities there, grocery stores, all of these things that the residents have access to. Since a lot of them are older and have mobility issues, if they have to leave this park and they’re looking at places that are cheaper, those are going to be out of town.”
“It’s bigger than just being able to stay in this park, it’s a matter of being able to stay in the city,” said Mcdaniel.