To The Editor

When Cameron Reny was first running [successfully] for the Maine Senate she sat in our living room and asked what my wife and I thought were the most pressing issues facing Lincoln County. We said the lack of affordable and workforce housing. That is why I am so pleased to see her really working effectively on this issue with her bills to support manufactured housing and manufactured housing parks. This kind of housing offers the only unsubsidized home ownership opportunities for people of modest incomes, but it also provides one of the few means for families to build wealth.

Manufactured housing parks are frequently called mobile home parks but the reality is that the homes are not really mobile. It is not practical to pick up and move your home if the corporation owning the ground under your home raises the rent unreasonably or fails to maintain the property. The other reality is that increasingly out-of-state real estate trusts own the parks. Currently 20% are so owned and often they are not responsive to the needs of the homeowners. Bills Senator Reny is sponsoring will address these issues and will move Maine towards a more fair and equitable place.

Brett Donham

Alna