Manufactured homeowners say time for legislative help on lot rents waning

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(The Center Square) – Pennsylvania lawmakers seeking to ease the state’s housing shortage have advanced proposals that would facilitate new home construction, but there are residents who worry about losing the affordable housing they already have. For some, affordability is already slipping away. 

Residents from Manufactured Home Communities, or MHCs, gathered last week in Allentown for a meeting organized by the Coalition of Manufactured Home Communities of Pennsylvania to discuss the current status and future prospects of several bills aimed at protecting them, including two that have been awaiting action in the same Senate committee for 15 months.

People living in MHCs typically own their homes but rent the land beneath them. Private equity firms and other large investors have acquired communities, with some imposing steep lot rent increases that residents say are making their once affordable form of homeownership increasingly unaffordable. 

In June 2025, House Bill 1250, introduced by Rep. Liz Hanbidge, D-Blue Bell, passed the House 144-59, while Senate Bill 745 was introduced by Sen. Judy Schwank, D-Reading. Both were referred to the Senate Urban Affairs and Housing Committee where they have remained since. 

Both bills would tie lot rent and other fee increases to the consumer price index while allowing additional increases for extraordinary operating expenses. SB 745 also provides for temporary surcharges for qualifying capital improvements.

After one year, Schwank’s SB 746 was reported out as amended and sent to the Senate Appropriations Committee, where it now sits. It would provide residents with an opportunity to purchase their community when it is offered for sale. 

Coalition founder Bob Besecker emphasized there are just 11 scheduled session days remaining. If the bills fail to win final passage before the session ends, the process must start over with a new General Assembly in January. 

Beseckerstaged a role-play exercise with volunteers representing the House and Senate. It ended with the Senate side still holding bills while the House side stood empty-handed. HB 1250 had moved from committee to House passage in less than two months, despite the House being in session for only two weeks. 

He placed the delay squarely on the Senate Urban Affairs and Housing Committee – four Democrats, seven Republicans – saying its Republican majority “controls the calendar,” and determines whether the bill gets heard. 

Personal stories surfaced during the Q&A with residents describing additional charges layered on top of steep lot rent increases. Act 261 limits changes to lot rent to once per 12-month period but does not impose the same restriction on other fees.

Lanna McNeill and her mother reside near each other in separate communities. McNeill lives in Red Maples, just outside of Allentown, and her mother in Mayo Park, Trexlertown – both are currently owned by GSP Management Co.

McNeill told The Center Square she moved to the community five years ago after becoming medically disabled. Her mother, who also has health issues and significant vision loss, moved into Mayo Park in 2023, “just before Mr. Mayo sold the community to ARX in early 2024,” she said. 

The communities were again sold in 2026 to GSP, and in three years, their monthly lot rents have doubled – from $435 to $869. Residents in Mayo have also been hit with additional fees.

McNeill said her mother is worried her fixed retirement income will be inadequate to cover the in-home help she needs after paying her mortgage and increased lot rent and taxes.

It's become so challenging for “lower-middle income people, or those on very restricted incomes – retired people, disabled people, veterans, our young families starting out – to afford it,” said McNeill. 

The Senate recently passed a package of bills aimed at increasing the state’s housing supply. That emphasis on adding housing intersects with the long-running debate over preserving MHCs as a source of lower-cost homeownership for an estimated 56,000 Pennsylvania households.

Lehigh County Controller Mark Pinsley, a Democrat challenging Sen. Jarett Coleman, R-Allentown, for his state Senate seat in November, expressed support for the residents and the legislation. 

“I’m for the people, not the powerful,” Pinsley told The Center Square. He argued the proposed limits are not an absolute rent cap, but a threshold that still gives community owners flexibility. 

Pinsley said he began receiving calls about the issue around two years ago from residents asking if he could do anything as controller, “which I can’t,” he said. He said he hopes the legislation passes regardless of who advances it. “I want them to be safe.”

Lawmakers return to session Sept. 28. If HB 1250 moves out of committee and passes the Senate without amendment, it would go to Gov. Josh Shapiro, who has vowed to sign it if it reaches his desk. 

Despite the dwindling calendar, Besecker said he believes HB 1250 still has a strong chance of passage. He said the coalition believes the bill has enough votes to move it out of committee and enough support to pass it on the Senate floor. 

 “If the Urban Affairs and Housing Committee got off their backsides and did what they were supposed to do, we would be sailing,” he said. “They just have to get off their butts and move it.”

Since its beginnings in 2021, the coalition has grown to 171 member communities across the state, representing more than 27,000 residents.