Ohio Seniors Demand Rent Control As Mobile Home Rents Spike

Ohio senior citizens are so fed up with spiraling rent costs at their mobile home parks that they want the state legislature to enact rent control laws. They recently protested in front of the statehouse to emphasize their demand for curbs on rent. However, it is unlikely that those protests will yield the results they are looking for, mainly because Ohio's state legislature enacted a statewide ban on rent control in 2022.

Rent control laws are state or local ordinances that allow governments to cap landlords’ or property owners’ increases in tenant rents. They are commonplace in many cities on the East and West Coasts with high costs of living and rent-burdened residents but unpopular with landlords and property owners. Ohio's legislators passed the ban because they believed rent control would discourage developers from building in the Buckeye State.

At the time of the ban, Ohio was not a state known for out-of-control residential rents; however, some Ohioans have been more adversely affected than others. The total lack of rent control means landlords have no restrictions on how much they raise rents on tenants in month-to-month leases or whose leases are eligible for renewal. Some Ohio seniors, especially those on fixed incomes, have been experiencing difficulty keeping pace with their rent increases since the ban.

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Ohio seniors who reside in mobile home parks have been hit particularly hard and it's not hard to see why. A senior living on a fixed income of $2,000 per month who was paying $800 to rent a mobile home would be hard-pressed to maintain their lifestyle after multiple $100/month rent increases in the same year. That's why some of the protesters at the Statehouse referred to uncapped hikes as a form of elder abuse.

Their concerns about rapidly increasing rents come at a difficult time. Inflation has driven up the cost of most consumer products. It's no surprise Ohio seniors feel under siege and since rent is the single biggest expense for many of them, the possibility that the landlord can raise the rent as much as they want is frightening. Some protesters said $150/month increases have become the norm, and they are scared that there is no ceiling. 

That said, it's worth looking deeper into why mobile home rents are such a point of contention. Zillow reports that the current median rent in Ohio (including all types and sizes of rentals) is $1,295. That reflects an increase of only $95/month in the two years since the rent control ban was passed. It's also significantly lower than the national average of $2,141. So, what's going on at the mobile home parks?

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First, the obvious. Mobile home parks have traditionally been some of the most inexpensive types of rental real estate. This explains their popularity with seniors on fixed incomes. Unfortunately for them, mobile home parks have also become popular with real estate investment trusts (REITs) for the same reason. Mobile home parks are inexpensive compared to traditional apartment complexes and offer significant rent upside.

That's why many REITs have been adding mobile home parks to their portfolios since 2022. Like any asset in a REIT portfolio, the only way to make a mobile home park appreciate is to increase the revenue it generates. The only way to do that is by raising rents. In this case, the rent increases disproportionately hit people on fixed incomes or with limited economic resources.

This is why Ohio seniors in mobile home parks are calling for rent control. Many fear that if rents continue to rise, they will end up homeless. Speaking to ABC-6 News, Lancaster mobile home resident Dan Wykle said, "It’s a free-for-all now. There are absolutely no safeguards in place for folks like myself. We’ve got to hang on and pray and do everything we can to make it to the next day."

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