Lewiston joined other Maine municipalities this week in enacting a moratorium on mobile home lot rent increases.

Several Maine municipalities, including Old Orchard Beach, Auburn and Brunswick, have limited mobile home lot rent increases in response to reports of increasing rents and deferred maintenance from residents. 

Lewiston’s moratorium will prevent increases in lot rent for 180 days while the city determines if long-term stabilization ordinance is necessary. The City Council passed the measure 6-1 on Tuesday, with Bret Martel dissenting.

Five mobile home park residents spoke to the council on Tuesday, with several claiming they’ve recently seen steep rent increases and fear being displaced from their homes. 

“The elderly are selling their places because they cannot afford the rent,” said Gene Perreault, a resident of Country Lane Estates, a mobile home park in Lewiston. “And we have nowhere else to go.”

Four people spoke against the moratorium. Adam Krans, a member of the BoaVida team that operates three mobile home parks in the area, told the City Council that if the moratorium was enacted, his company would defer improvements to the mobile home parks, such as a road repair project at Country Lane Estates. 

“That is simply financial the reality of rising costs without corresponding revenue increases,” Krans said.