ARUNDEL – Residents in Arundel have passed a new ordinance that will limit how much property owners can raise monthly rent rates on mobile homes in town.

Residents passed the measure at the annual town meeting on June 10. Town Clerk Rachel Bull said an actual tally of the vote was not available, but 175 voters were present, and it passed by a show of hands.

“There were so many ‘yesses’ you could hear the arms go up,” said Jennifer Moreau, who lives on Shady Lane in Shady Oaks Mobile Home Park.

Bull said the ordinance went into effect on passage. The new ordinance, according to town documents, limits the number of times property owners can raise rents to once a year. It also limits the amount owners can raise rents to the latest percentage change listed in the Consumer Price Index-Northeast plus 1%. The CPI, a metric that tracks the change in the prices of goods and services nationwide, is produced and updated by the U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics. 

Any property owner who wishes to raise the rents higher than the ordinance allows must make the case for doing so to the town’s Rent Stabilization Board, a body made up of the town manager, code enforcement officer and town assessor.

The issue of skyrocketing rents for mobile home park residents has prompted state legislators and local regulators statewide to consider similar ordinances and restrictions. Communities such as Sanford, Auburn, Jay and Westbrook have all wrestled with what can be done.

Residents in some communities have complained that landlords have raised rent several times a year, in some cases totaling more than $200 a month. In Arundel, Moreau said she and her fellow mobile home park residents worry about similar increases.

“That’s unsustainable for people in trailer parks,” she said. “It’s usually low-income people, retirees, disabled veterans, and this is why we came here was because it was sustainable.” 

Moreau said mobile home parks are the last remaining unsubsidized low-income housing left in Maine. Without them, she said, residents like her would have to move into state-sponsored affordable housing.

“We’re trying to stay off the system,” she said. “We’re trying, but if you take this away, we can’t.”

Moreau said she was grateful to see the public support during last weeks’ town meeting.

“I’m hopeful that it stabilizes things,” she said.