LAKELAND, Fla. — Brandi Norsworthy is in an ironic, depressing predicament. She owns a home but worries she will soon be homeless.
“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 the Lakeland Gardens Mobile Home Park. While she owns her home, she rents the space it sits on.
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 was one of several people who reached out to ABC Action News about the rising lot rents and how they’re putting senior citizens on fixed incomes and others at risk of homelessness.
As lawmakers begin a new legislative session in Tallahassee, many who reached out said they hoped lawmakers would cap lot rents. Rep. Paula Stark (R-Osceola County) does not think that will happen anytime soon.
“Because it is just not going to go anywhere, and we all know that,” she said.
However, Stark has filed HB 613. The bill, if passed, would give mobile home owners a few stronger protections while balancing the interests of lot owners too.
- First, it would allow mobile home owners to reap bigger payments if the land-use of their mobile home park changes, and they’re forced to either relocate or abandon their homes.
- Next, it would allow mobile home owners to have live-in aides in their homes without paying additional rents.
- Finally, it would provide mobile home owners a clearer, easier way to mediate with lot owners and contest unreasonable rent increases.
“We’re trying to make the process for the homeowners — more palatable for them,” Rep. Stark said in a recent news conference. “We’ve tried to deal with the main issues that we thought would help out.”
The bill has a companion piece in the Florida Senate, and according to Stark, it also has the support of multiple groups that advocate for mobile home owners.
Norsworthy supports the bill and hopes others do too because if something doesn’t change, she thinks homelessness is in her future.
“It is hard because I’ve been on the streets,” she said. “I don’t want to go back. But if they keep raising the lot rent like this, I [won’t] have a choice.”
