Megan Vert

A woman holds a baby outside of her home

Before moving to Landmark Estates, my children and I were living with relatives. There were 13 of us living in a three-bedroom home, and I slept in the basement with my three kids. Not only was this move a good financial investment, but buying my home in Landmark Estates cut my commute in half and allowed me to spend a lot more time with my kids.

Unlike many manufactured home buyers, I knew I was walking into a project. Since 2019, I’ve worked with my dad, who renovates mobile homes professionally. I ended up buying a home from the park owners. I worked hard to fix it up, and within a month, my family moved in! Only a few months later, I realized how badly the park was managed. Even with my extensive knowledge of renovation and home maintenance, I feel helpless due to all these mounting issues with the park. 

Abandoned units became drug houses, and rats are everywhere! Our water pressure is inconsistent, and our sewage often shows up under our homes or in our bathtubs. I have to use a Brita filter to wash my dishes and only drink bottled water. Tree roots have grown through our roads, gas lines, and sidewalks. We have to drive or walk a half mile to take out the trash. We have neighbors with mobility issues. While we’re happy to help each other out, it’s not fair to them. As the trash piles up, the rat problem has worsened. 

My neighbors and I are busy people. Most of us have kids and jobs. But once we realized how bad things were, we knew we had to work together to improve our situation. Lately, we’ve had a few successes. We voiced our concern, and management is making cosmetic changes to the park and has set up a ‘helpline’ to address our issues. It was really rewarding to see our efforts begin to pay off.

However, lately we’ve seen that they’re not going to do anything fully without us pushing them. They fixed a few sewer lines, but not the whole system, and we keep seeing backups. They pulled out some condemned trailers, but left uncapped gas lines and live electrical cables exposed. I know my neighbors and I will use the momentum from our success to keep fighting for an affordable and livable place to call home.