FILE - Robin Zorich lives at the Woodland Park East manufactured home park north of Vancouver, Wash., on Jan. 31, 2025. Despite owning her home, the rent for the lot in her mobile home community has increased from $610 to $1300 in recent years.
Erik Neumann / OPB
Robin Zorich and her husband have lived seven years at a manufactured home in Woodland Park East, a 55-year-old mobile home park north of Vancouver, Washington. Although she owns the house, she rents the land it sits on.
The couple downsized from their house in Vancouver, where they had lived for 20 years, before moving into the mobile home, believing that it was easier to get around in a single-level home.
Their rent has gone up every year, rising from $610 when they purchased the home in 2017 to $1,300 per month. These days, they’re cutting costs to make the payments.
Yet a reprieve came Sunday when the state House and Senate passed the House Bill 1217, which limits rent increase for manufactured homes to 5% per year.
Related: Manufactured home park residents pray for relief as lawmakers aim at rent
While the bill has to be signed by Gov. Bob Ferguson before becoming law, Zorich believes the new legislation will help protect seniors like her who are on Social Security.
“There’s people who are not taking their medication, who can’t afford to buy it. Who are keeping the temperatures of their house down at like 60, 65 [degrees Fahrenheit] so they can save on electricity,” she said.
Zorich volunteers as the president of the advocacy group Washington Association of Manufactured Home Owners. Ideally, she’d like to live in a tenant-owned park.
The nonprofit ROC Northwest helps residents form cooperatives to buy their parks when they’re put up for sale, but that can cost millions and is an unrealistic goal for many who are just trying to stay afloat.
Related: After long fight, Washington state Legislature approves rent control bill
Meanwhile, Zorich says the legislation could bring some sense of stability to her community.
“For us to have some idea of what we’re going to be going through next year. You know, they raise the rent every single year,” she said.
House Bill 1217 would also limit rent increases for traditional homes at 7% plus inflation or 10%, whichever is lower, but landlords could still raise it more when a new tenancy starts.
While the rent cap on traditional homes expires after 15 years, the manufactured home rule won’t lapse.
If signed by the governor, the bill would be one of the first rent stabilization laws in the nation. Oregon and California also have similar policies.
OPB’s Erik Neumann contributed to this story.
