Janella Ortega Acevedo
A woman stands on a deck. She wears blue jeans and a gray sweatshirt that says "EST. 1987 AERO".
My name is Janella Ortega Acevedo. I currently live in Silver Stream Village in Orange County NY, where I have lived with my four young children for the past four years. Being a single mom, it’s not easy to raise them by myself and be the only provider in the house.
When I purchased my home four years ago from my parents (which they had purchased 6-7 years ago) my lot rent was $830 per month, which I expected to be a stable amount. My dream was to purchase the home from my parents and have a more affordable home for my family. I never thought that the community was going to be sold to a predatory corporation like RHP Properties at the end of 2017. Now I pay $933 per month for lot rent only.
The mobile home park I live in has nothing to offer my children. We don't have a place to meet, say for a children's party or even adult social time. The children here in our mobile home park would love to have a nice playground and socialize with one another but that is not in the works. I feel we should not get a rent increase if property tax doesn’t go up. I feel it's unfair to raise lot rent. We pay lot rent, yet we only have parking space for 2 cars. I don't see RHP Properties doing anything in regards to fixing any of the issues within the park.... Water is turned off with no notice to the residents and we have poor lighting in some parts of the community.
At the end of 2019, I was informed RHP Properties was going to raise our lot rent more than the 3% limit, with no justification whatsoever. I honestly didn't know how I was going to afford it. The community banded together to get a more feasible increase. We reached out to the news and our Senator to assist us with the unlawful lot rent increase that RHP Properties was charging us. We were ultimately victorious and reached an agreement to raise the rent only by 3%, instead of the original proposal.
Although it has been over a year since the health crisis of COVID-19 that impacted the world, we are still unsure if we will ever go back to normal. Meanwhile RHP Properties continues getting richer and taking advantage of vulnerable residents within the communities they own across the state.
In 2021, MHAction leaders across the Hudson Valley engaged with their elected officials, having important legislative discussions and asking them to address issues concerning rent justification, The Tenant Opportunity to Purchase Act (TOPA) when communities go up for sale, and good cause evictions.
I refuse to allow RHP Properties to run me out of my home, a place where I have many good memories of my kids and my parents. You can do the same. Come and join the fight to keep predatory corporations like RHP Properties from buying out our community because all families deserve a decent, affordable place to call home.
