TALLAHASSEE, Fla. — A bill that would provide Florida mobile home owners more tools and protections is on the verge of passage.
Its sponsor, Rep. Paula Stark, who represents part of Osceola County, expects HB 613 will pass the Florida House of Representatives on Friday.
If it becomes law, it would allow mobile home owners to have live-in aides in their homes without paying additional rents.
Most importantly, it would give mobile home owners a clearer, easier way to mediate with mobile home park owners and contest unreasonable “lot rent” increases.
A “lot rent” is paid monthly when a mobile home owners leases the land their mobile home sits on.
Over the past few months, multiple people have reached out to ABC Action News about rising lot rents and how they’re putting senior citizens on fixed incomes and others at risk of homelessness.
One of the people who reached out was Brandi Norsworthy.
“I pray that I’m not going to be homeless. I pray that Florida will take a stand for the little people,” she said, with emotion in her voice. “I’m tearing up right now because it’s so stressful.”
Last year, she used a legal settlement to buy a mobile home at a mobile home park in Lakeland.
She thought she’d be paying a lot of rent at $520 a month, but Norsworthy said she got a letter in October that notified her of an increase that took effect on Jan. 1.
“Due to market rent and expenses, it seems impossible not to increase,” the letter specified.
Lot rent went up $85 to $605 a month. For Brandi, who’s barely scraping by on a tight budget, that’s a lot.
“I bring in $963 a month,” she said. “By the time I pay the $605 lot rent, time I pay my life bill, time I, you know, put gas and make sure he’s got stuff he needs, I buy miscellaneous — I have nothing. Nothing.”
Norsworthy hopes HB 613 will pass and that lawmakers like Stark will continue to advocate for mobile home owners.
“I feel like the little people [have] no say in [anything]. The struggling people — we’re nobody,” she said.
According to Stark, HB 613 and its companion bill in the Senate should both pass during the next few days.
Stark said, even after the current legislative session ends, she will continue to work on the issue in future sessions. Next, she would like to target “bad actor” mobile home park owners who she said are circumventing current laws.
