Auburn mobile home park residents seek legal action over rent hikes, lack of services

AUBURN ‒ As a mid-20s morning chilled the Worcester area Wednesday morning, Amy Case, a resident at American Mobile Home Park, said she woke up to no heating, as the furnace connecting to her mobile home failed to start.

Despite the 49-year-old, who has lived at one of the 38 mobile homes since 2019, reaching out to the managing company Parakeet Communities, she never heard back from them as of Wednesday afternoon, something she sees as the latest blow to American Mobile Home Park's residents.

Case also cited a drastic rent increase across the park starting Jan. 1, which drove the residents to issue a formal request through the Boston-based nonprofit organization Lawyers for Civil Rights.

American Mobile Home Park is an affordable-housing community, mostly comprising residents on low and fixed incomes, often due to disabilities and old age.

“When I moved in, I was getting out of a bad situation,” said Case. “A friend recommended the park, and they had an opening.

“It was less money and a good place to live at the time and a good location.”

The mobile home park is one of four that Maryland-based Parakeet owns in the state, buying the property in April 2022.

The letter to the management also represents the other Auburn location called Whispering Pine Estates, where residents see similar issues, according to attorney Jacob Love.

While most of the 38 homes are rented, the park also has owner tenants who pay a lease for the plot of land.

The letter says renter-tenants now must pay about 40% more in the new year, bringing their monthly payments from under $1,000 to over $1,300, while owner-tenants would have to pay about 25% more, bringing their fees from under $500 to nearly $600.

On behalf of the residents, the letter requests the company “to substantially reduce the rent and lot fee hikes it has imposed on Park residents, make all legally required disclosures to residents, and properly maintain the property.”

It outlines how the company has made “unfair and illegal lease offers” to its residents, adding that not every resident got the same rent hike as the company is standardizing the rent to $1,315.

Wendy Milenkevich, the regional manager of Parakeet Communities, said she couldn’t comment on the letter, although she said a lawyer representing the company would reach back.

As of early Wednesday afternoon, nobody reached back despite a second attempt to get a comment.

While each resident was paying different amounts, for Case, who has worked at WPI in the graduate admission office for about 10 years, the rent hike was almost $350.

Others, she said, will have to pay much more.

Because of the rent hikes, the residents have set up a food bank inside their pantry area building.

Canned foods and clothing items are among the donations.

“We live on eggshells around here, because we never know what they’re going to do,” said Case.

The letter also outlines how the company has not provided necessary services, such as weekly trash pickups or even doing repairs for the residents.

Case said the week before a reporter's visit, the lone dumpster for the park was overflowing, with trash spilling out to the ground as pickup was two days late.

“Parakeet has only supplied the property with one trash dumpster,” stated the letter, “which is too small to contain the Park’s garbage.

“This leads to a weekly pile up of garbage outside the overly full dumpster, which creates foul odors and attracts unwanted pests to the property.”

Snow-covered sidewalks and driveways are also a show of how the company neglects to plow away the snow, according to Case.

She points to a brace to her left leg, saying that even though she has health problems, she must clear the snow herself.

To help less able residents, Case said the residents came together to help with snow clearing.

“Everybody gets along, everybody kind of kept to themselves unless we're out in the summertime,” said Case. “But now we've all gotten a lot closer in the last couple of months as soon as we get that letter taped to our doors.”

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Auburn mobile home park residents seek legal aid over hikes, neglect