Residents call for rent control at Auburn mobile home park in wake of $500 hike

AUBURN — Herbert Corey has always been a hands-on man who, in all his years of working as a contractor, is most proud for his work to build in the early 1980s mobile home park Whispering Pines Estates Mobile Homes.

For the last 25 years, Corey has also lived there with his wife, Jerralyn, owning one of the homes since 1999.

During most of that stay, Corey has also worked as the park’s maintenance person, with his lease waived.

That was until April 2022, when Parakeet Communities, a Maryland-based managing company, purchased the park, immediately changing the park’s rules, among others bumping up the rent to $500 across the park.

Last December, the company issued a five-year lease agreement that would start Jan. 1 of this year, asking the residents to pay $615, and to expect $100 increases every year.

By 2028, each resident of the 55-plus community will be required to pay a rent of $1,015.

In the flurry of changes, Corey was stripped of his position as maintenance manager and was asked to pay rent for the plot of land where he and his wife live.

“We never thought this would happen,” said Corey, now 75. “I don’t mind paying rent, but they should have rent control.”

Corey, who now supports himself with part-time trade work in addition to Social Security payments, added, “I’m more concerned about the elderly people. I feel bad for them.”

The Coreys are among all the park’s residents who on Jan. 17 issued a formal request through the Boston-based nonprofit organization Lawyers for Civil Rights “to substantially reduce the rent and lot fee hikes it has imposed on Park residents…and properly maintain the property.”

The letter also represents American Mobile Home Park, a mostly renter-tenant park also in Auburn, where in addition to the rent grievances, the residents described in a previous Telegram & Gazette story how they have also seen issues with cleanliness and maintenance standards such as “a weekly pile up of garbage outside the overly full dumpster, which creates foul odors and attracts unwanted pests to the property.”

Originally, the letter was addressed to Wendy Milenkevich, the regional manager of Parakeet Communities.

Since the publication of the Jan. 17 story, Milenkevich left her position, as per an email that was sent to residents saying that “Wendy will no longer be serving as our regional manager, and we sincerely appreciate her dedicated service during her time with us.”

Attempts to reach Natalie Magurne, the person backfilling for Milenkevich, were responded to in an email on Thursday that said, “Someone will be in touch within the next day.”

As of Saturday, nobody reached back.

"The management change is a small step in the right direction,” said Jacob Love, attorney for Lawyers for Civil Rights, “but it does not absolve Parakeet of responsibility for the illegal lease offers and maintenance failures at the parks.

“Parakeet still must reduce the unconscionable rent increases, which are placing many tenants — including those who are elderly and disabled — at risk of homelessness."

The mobile home park is one of five that Parakeet owns in the state.

On a dead-end road off Washington Street in Auburn, the park limits its stay to 55-and-over residents who all own one of the 58 homes.

For most, it’s a cheaper option to retire. For others, it’s all they can afford.

Bill Lukey, a 66-year-old resident of seven years, said the choice to move to Whispering Pines came when he and his wife sold their home to downsize after he retired as a firefighter for Hopkinton Fire Department.

Lukey, whose wife is diagnosed with dementia, said he lives off his pension and Social Security payments, “but the money just doesn’t make ends meet all the time.”

“It was actually a nice place to live until this corporation came in and started throwing their weight around,” said Lukey. “With the rent going up and everything I cried for two days. I was at a loss.

“I was like, ‘What the hell am I going to do?’”

Karen Bradshaw, who has lived at the park for about four years, said she lives off disability payments.

Bradshaw said some residents organize to help less abled residents with their trash pickups, shoveling or cleaning.

“There's actually somebody only making $730,” said Bradshaw. “We're talking about someone whose husband is dying and is bedridden and can't get all the help that they need.

“When their husband does pass, what are they going to do with only $700, $800?”

In an interview last Thursday, Town Manager Edward J. Kazanovicz said that the situation recently appeared in front of the Board of Selectmen for a rent control provision to be implemented.

“This is a very complex issue,” said Kazanovicz. “This would require a local bylaw, something that cannot happen that quickly.

“We need a rent control board and oversee the rents that are passed onto the tenants, and we have to have a discussion.”

This article originally appeared on Telegram & Gazette: Whispering Pines residents in Auburn request rent control from town