Eviction from manufactured home parks

Abstract

Residents of manufactured home parks (MHPs) generally own their homes but not the land on which those homes are located and, as a result, face unique and costly risks of eviction. The most commonly studied and understood pathway to eviction is one in which failure to pay rent puts households at risk of removal. Another pathway occurs when entire developments are shuttered, resulting in mass displacement. Residents of MHPs are at risk of both forms of eviction. Overall, we know little about the prevalence and correlates of either form of eviction from MHPs, and more generally little about landlords’ actions – buying, selling and governing communities – that drive evictions. We bring together multiple administrative datasets to track MHP eviction patterns across the state of Florida between 2012 and 2022. Annually, 6500 eviction cases were filed against MHP residents, with roughly one in three cases originating from just 100 parks. Beyond these individual eviction cases, mass displacements were responsible for the permanent loss of over 6000 out of 293,000 registered MHP lots. This highlights the importance of tracking displacement that happens outside of eviction courts, often under the banner of resale and redevelopment, especially in light of corporate and private equity investment in MHPs in recent years.