Seniors face eviction, uncertainty with sale of mobile home community in SW Washington

The Woodland East Mobile Home Park is a community of residents 55-and-older, located in Southwest Washington, roughly 20 miles north of Vancouver. The Columbian recently reported on the plight of the many seniors who live there and struggle to pay $1050 per month to rent a lot, in addition to their mortgages, utilities and other expenses. The tenants claim the landlord has raised their rent by 250% since he purchased Woodland East in 2017, and have filed more than 100 complaints against him with the Washington Attorney General’s office.  

But now the tenants are facing their biggest hurdle. They received notice last fall the community was up for sale and have until Jan. 24 to raise $33 million to buy the mobile home park themselves, although the property may already be under contract. Alexis Weisend and Mia Ryder-Marks cover affordable housing and homelessness at The Columbian. They join us to talk about their reporting, and how a new law intended to protect mobile home tenants can still leave them vulnerable to rent increases and eviction.