Skip to content
Home » News & Updates » LEMHOA’s July Newsletter

LEMHOA’s July Newsletter

LEMHOA NEWSLETTER

July 2026

The Land of Enchantment Manufactured Home Owners Alliance (LEMHOA) supports the property rights of landlords while advocating for equity for homeowners in lot-lease communities. We believe that homeowners in MHCs (mobile home parks, trailers courts, & manufactured home communities) deserve property rights and legal protections. Let us know if you can help or if you have any questions.

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

WHAT’S HAPPENING IN NEW MEXICO

LEMHOA PRESIDENT Joanne DeMichele gave public comment to the Legislative Health and Human Services and Courts, Correction, and Justice Interim Committees in June.  She emphasized that the problems facing resident homeowners in New Mexico’s MHCs is not just a housing issue, but a health issue, a justice issue, and a consumer protection issue. Now is the time to enact protections.

Though many states have seriously addressed problems in MHCs, New Mexico’s Mobile Home Park Act has not kept pace with modern manufactured homes or the realities of out-of-state corporate ownership and private equity takeovers. Currently, more than 20,000 New Mexico households are controlled by out-of-state investors who own the land under their homes, and more than 2,200 New Mexico households are controlled by private equity.

Joanne urged the committees to support legislative efforts to protect MHC homeowners and communities, preserving affordable housing, protecting homeowner investments, improving public health, strengthening climate resilience and reducing future public costs.

HM54 Mobile Home Parks Utilities Working Group: The 2026 state legislature authorized the Public Regulatory Commission (PRC) to form a Work Group to develop recommendations for a regulatory and statutory framework to promote reliable and consistent access to utilities for MHC residents. Headed by Jerri Hanosh, Directory of Policy Administration with New Mexico’s Public Regulation Commission. The work group held its second meeting in June. The third meeting is scheduled the first week in August and LEMHOA’s president, Joanne DeMichele will do a presentation. For more information or to share any concerns you have experienced in your community, email: Robert Stetson at Stetson414@gmail.com or Joanne DeMichele at enchantmentmhoa@gmail.com.

ALBUQUERQUE RV Park owner moves to evict longtime residents as city cites property for code violations. Although Palisades Park in Albuquerque is for RV’s and not a Manufactured Home Park, it is home to many longtime residents.  Some are elderly, some disabled. Recently the park’s owner served the residents with 30-day eviction notices that could leave dozens with no place to go.  The older units that have been there for many years may not be moveable. Regardless of the type of roof over a person or family’s head—a manufactured home, a recreational vehicle, a tent—once it becomes a permanent residence, it should be respected as such. Every person deserves the security of knowing they will not be displaced from the safety of their home. The form of housing may differ, but the human impact of losing it is the same. Albuquerque RV Park owner moves to evict longtime residents.  

EYES ON THE CANDIDATES!

We continue to feature responses from our Candidate Questionnaire, which was sent to all candidates.

These answers provide insight into how MHCs are viewed and which candidates are willing to work toward solutions for the many challenges homeowners in New Mexico MHCs face. We believe that for tens of thousands of residents in New Mexico MHCs, these answers matter.

We have decided to include answers from candidates even if their campaigns have concluded. We believe all responses remain relevant, and we appreciate everyone’s participation.

This newsletter highlights our third question on our Candidate Questionnaire:

Resident-Owned Communities (ROCs) and Community Land Trusts (CLTs) are models designed to promote community stability and sustained affordability by treating land as a shared resource rather than a speculative commodity. To achieve this, Opportunity to Purchase (OTP) Legislation is necessary. OTP laws provide resident homeowners with advanced notice and the right to match third-party offers to purchase the community land. Twenty-two states have passed OTP laws. Would you support OTP legislation to enable affordability through ROCs and CLTs?

The following candidates answered “yes.” Some candidates provided wonderfully detailed responses. The names of candidates that gave detailed responses are bold. Some candidates have supported Opportunity to Purchase Legislation for MHCs (2025: HB426). Their names include an *.

Gubernatorial candidate Deb Haaland – (D) Congressional Candidate Rep. Gabriel Vasquez – (D), Secretary of State Candidate, Amanda López Askin – (D), Senate District 33 Rex A. Wilson– (R), House District 7 Rickie Gonzales – (D),House District 8 Katherine Joanna Gauer – (D), House District 14 Richard Victor Zubia– (R), House District 16 Representative Yanira Gurrola*- (D), House District 17 Representative Cynthia Borrego* – (D), House District 21 Robert L. Mason – (R), House District 25 Representative Christina Parajon* – (D), House District 25 Denis Litvinenko – (R), House District 28 Brenda Olson – (R), House District 28 Representative Pamelya Herndon* – (D), House District 30 Representative Elizabeth Diane Torres-Velasquez*—(D), House District 32 Laura Mariel Parra– (D), House District 33 Enrique Kiki Vigil – (R), House District 36 Julia E. Ruiz – (R), House District 39 Raul Turrietta-(D), House District 40 Nancy Wright-(D), House District 44 Representative Kathleen Cates* – (D), House District 47 Representative & Majority Floor Leader Reena Szczepanski* – (D), House District 51 Grace Nagamine – (I),House District 53 Representative Sarah Silva* – (D).

The following former (and possible future) candidates also responded to LEMHOA’s Questionnaire: Gubernatorial candidates Sam Bregman – (D), House District 6 David L. Alcon – (D), House District 16, Marsella Duarte Serna – (D),

To see the full responses to this and other questions from all the candidates who responded, click here: LEMHOA’s Candidate Questionnaire & Detailed Candidate Answers or reply to this email.

Know Your Rights: Retaliation Protection for Residents

By: Maria Griego, Attorney & Director of Economic Equity – New Mexico Center on Law & Poverty

New Mexico law protects you from retaliation by the owner or manager of a manufactured home community but it’s important you understand the limits.

What is retaliation?

Under New Mexico’s Uniform Owner-Resident Relations Act, if you’re following your rental agreement and not breaking any other rules, your owner is not allowed to punish you by raising your rent, decreasing or cutting off services, or trying to evict you because, in the last six months, you:

  • Reported a health or safety problem to a government agency (like a city code enforcement office) about a violation that affects health and safety;
  • Joined or started a residents’ union, association, or similar group;
  • Exercised your rights under the law in good faith — including making a written request or complaint asking your owner to make repairs they’re legally required to make;
  • Filed a fair housing complaint with a government agency about housing discrimination;
  • Won a lawsuit or currently have one pending against the owner related to your residency;
  • Testified on behalf of another resident in a dispute with the owner; or
  • Properly abated (withheld) rent under the specific legal procedures the law allows

If your rent goes up, your services are cut, or you’re facing eviction soon after any of these, it could be retaliation and that’s against the law.

An important caution: One situation comes up often: a resident withholds part of their rent because the owner hasn’t made a needed repair, and then the owner tries to evict them. This can feel like retaliation, but it isn’t always that simple. If you didn’t follow the correct legal steps to withhold rent, or if you’re behind on rent or breaking another rule, the owner may still be able to legally end your tenancy, even if the timing looks suspicious.

What can you do?

Right now, there’s no state agency that enforces this anti-retaliation law directly. But you still have options:

Report the issue to the New Mexico Department of Justice. They can’t always take action, but it helps them track patterns of bad owner practices.

  1. Raise retaliation as a defense if you’re taken to court for eviction.
  2. Talk to a lawyer before you act, especially before withholding rent, or if you’re already facing eviction and want to raise retaliation as a defense [Editor’s note: Where to get help.]

This monthly column by Maria Griego is general information, not legal advice.

Voices From Our Communities: Why Oversight Matters

From July to December 2024, over 100 Alamogordo MHC homeowners endured six months without natural gas. In virtually any other housing context, six months without heat, hot water, and cooking facilities would be considered uninhabitable. Yet, these homeowners, who own their homes but lease their lots, lack comparable protections when essential utility infrastructure controlled by the lot-lease business fails. They continued to pay rent, suffered, and waited.

Now, long after repairs have been completed, many residents are still suffering the consequences—this time, a 20% rent increase.

How much more should these homeowners endure? While the land lord’s repair costs are unknown, a 20% increase generates approximately $65,000 in additional annual revenue. If this increase is for infrastructure repairs, then without proper oversight, lot tenants could continue paying long after those costs are recovered.

These residents are seniors on fixed incomes. Over the past decade, the average annual Social Security Cost-of-Living Adjustment (COLA) has been approximately 3.1%. A 20% rent increase puts many homeowners at risk of becoming severely cost-burdened.

A Fair Alternative:

  • Establish a Statutory Warranty of Habitability and mandate infrastructure inspections to ensure healthy communities, reliable utility service, and effective remedies when essential services fail.
  • Lot rent should generally align with inflation, with larger increases permitted for documented capital improvements or extraordinary expenses. These costs should be recovered through transparent, time-limited assessments that end once the expense has been paid—not through permanent rent increases that generate ongoing profits long after repairs are complete.
  • Policymakers must recognize that homeowners in MHCs are property owners and investors. Collectively, the homes in these communities are often valued higher than the underlying land, and the homeowners often pay more in property taxes. When infrastructure is neglected, homeowners lose equity, affordable housing options diminish, and the entire community suffers.

· · ─ ·✶· ─ · ·

OF INTEREST….

21ST CENTURY ROAD TO HOUSING ACT HAS BEEN PASSED INTO LAW

This housing package aims to reduce homeownership costs and improve housing supply while incorporating priorities from Congress and the White House.

According to PESP (Private Equity Stakeholder Project) while the ROAD to Housing Act restricts corporate ownership of single-family homes, this legislation does not address the many other forms of housing owned by private equity landlords, including manufactured housing: More Action Needed.

  • Title 10 – Home-Ownership for Main Street America Sec. 1001 – Homes Are for People, Not Corporations: Restricts the purchase of new single-family homes by large institutional investors that directly or indirectly own at least 350 single-family homes.
  • Provides exemptions, including for large institutional investors seeking to purchase or build new single-family homes specifically for the rental market, and establishes a renter outreach resource to help renters of homes owned by large institutional investors through landlord disputes.
  • Sec.301 – Housing Supply Expansion Act: This act eliminates the permanent chassis requirement for manufactured homes. It also establishes HUD as the primary authority for, and requires HUD to set, minimum energy efficiency standards for manufactured homes.
  • Sec. 303 – Property Improvement and Manufactured Housing Loan Modernization Act*Increases the loan limits of FHA-insured manufactured housing loans, adds the construction of accessory dwelling units as an acceptable use for FHA-insured property improvement loans, and directs HUD to conduct a study on the cost-effectiveness of off-site construction techniques.
  • Sec. 304 – PRICE ACT Reauthorizes (PRICE) grants for seven years to fund the repair, preservation, and improvement of existing MHCs.

HAPPENINGS ACROSS THE COUNTRY

DELAWARE: Delaware 153rd General Assembly passed An Act to Amend Title 25 of the Delaware Code Relating to Rent Increases. This Act repeals the sunset date on the rent increase calculations for MHCs that were enacted as a pilot under Senate Bill No. 317 (151st General Assembly), 83 Del.Laws, c. 341, which governs rent justification, conditions for rent increases, and exemptions. https://codes.findlaw.com/de/title-25-property/de-code-sect-25-7052/

WISCONSIN: Private equity firms purchasing manufactured home parks in rural Wisconsin are rapidly increasing monthly lot rents, causing financial strain on residents. Wisconsin MHC tenants fight back.

MORE UPCOMING EVENTS & OPPORTUNITIES & INFORMATION . . .

  • LEMHOA’s FIRST THURSDAY ZOOM MEETINGS RESUME IN SEPTEMBER! For homeowners, residents, and allies. Together, we advance and protect affordable housing, homeowner rights, and community stability. Mark your calendar!
  • Volunteers are needed. The more people involved, the more we can accomplish. Reach out to help!
  • LEMHOA’s board meets every first Tuesday via Zoom. LEMHOA’s members are welcome and encouraged to attend. Request link: enchantmentmhoa@gmail.com
  • GET INVOLVED & SUPPORT LEMHOA—Your Voice Matters: JOIN! Follow us on Facebook: FOLLOW! Check out:  LEMHOA’S WEBSITE! Find ways to help by emailing: info@manufacturedhomeownersalliance.org
  • You can read last month’s newsletter here: Last Month’s Newsletter
  • Need Help? Where to get help: https://manufacturedhomeownersalliance.org/where-to-get-help/

♥ Contact Florence Dean with news items & press information: nmflod@yahoo.com