Mobile home owners demanding better safety regulations following tornado damage

People know the dangers of living in a mobile home. Mobile home parks do need a shelter for safety.

There definitely should be a requirement for mobile home communities to have a storm shelter for their residents.

Where I live lot rent is now $680 a month! We have nothing extra but a $300 a month increase they can definitely afford shelters. They are not adding more for residents but increasing rent like crazy.

I live in a mobile home park only a few miles from Pavilion Estates and I feel for the people who have gone through this. Believe it or not, parks are not required to provide shelters, and the vast majority of them don't. My park is one of them; they are more interested in putting in a swimming pool than a storm shelter. At least that was the situation before yesterday; maybe they will take what happened at Pavilion as a wake-up call, but I doubt it. Now here's the ugly reality that perhaps the news isn't going to cover. For many people, this story is not going to have a happy ending. Insurance may not cover the amount needed to replace a destroyed older mobile home with a newer one. What happens then? Well, these people just vanish. What happens to them isn't important to the broader community, which may even give a sigh of relief. I know nobody is saying this right now, but as I said, I live in a mobile home park myself and I know that Pavilion Estates does not have the best of reputations. I know this because I used to live in a park very much like Pavilion Estates and I know what homeowners in my community said about it and still say about it, right to my face, even those people who know me. That's the ugly side about living in a mobile home park, and yes, we need to talk about it. Especially now. Because mobile home parks have such a negative reputation, they attract predatory investors that see them as an easy way to make money from a vulnerable population that nobody really gives a damn about. This is from Mobile Home University, a website offering advice on investing in mobile home parks. "But not all real estate can maintain occupancy and income when the economy goes down the drain so you have to choose wisely. Of the best positioned niches, mobile home parks stand out from the crowd for several reasons: "They represent the last tenet of affordable housing in the U.S. They are basically the dollar store of housing with nothing even remotely approaching their price point. As America goes into a tailspin, the demand for affordable housing goes up exponentially. "Mobile home parks have insanely low rents that can go up significantly despite American doom and gloom. The average mobile home park lot rent is around $300 per month at a time in which the average apartment rent is $2,000 per month. Mobile home park rents could double – and will do so – and they will still be by far the lowest cost form of housing. "The supply of mobile home parks is capped so there will be no further competition. As investors figure out the desirability of mobile home park investing they will not be able to flood the market as has happened with apartments, namely because virtually every city and town in the U.S. has banned new mobile home park construction since the 1970s." Read again the paragraph about insanely low rents--$300 a month versus $2000 per month--and now put yourself in the shoes of those people at Pavilion Estates who have just lost their homes. THIS IS WHAT THEY ARE FACING. I don't know anyone who lives in Pavilion Estates but I can tell you that they are living there because they can't afford to live elsewhere. They can't afford that $2000 a month apartment rent. They can't afford a mortgage. They can probably only barely afford lot rent. And now that is gone. What are these people going to do? Where are they going to go? A month from now, six months from now, a year from now, will there be any follow-up from reporters? I doubt it.

Many blessings to all effected.

I live in a mobile home community, and they have a storm shelter under the basketball court. Residents are welcome, but pets are not. My dog and I prepare to leave and leave ahead of time.

More community shelters in general is a good idea!

Yet mobile home parks are just a crap shoot in tornado Alley. People know the high risk when they move in. It's affordable living in today's struggling economy and land owners take advantage of it.

Giant trees next to mobile homes are terrifying. Even big 2 story, well built homes don't fair well. But, most have basements, at least.😮

They wouldn’t be able to afford them then. Just a sad fact.

Greed knows no boundaries! Pay more get nothing. But common sense, people who live in mobile home parks, the parks need sound shelters.

I live in a mobile home park and the office will not let us shelter there during tornadoes.

You can get it as safe as you want. You just have to pay for it. That then makes them unaffordable.

Staying up with you.. my prayers are with you...

Hey, Gretch! Show me a mobile home "foundation".

Maybe they could add in a mandatory storm shelter with every sale. Trailer park landowners should be mandated to put several shelters on the property. Nothing wring with the trailer, just make shelters available.

Anybody that owns a trailer park should have a place where people can go underground when tornadoes hit when you live in tornado alley that's common sense.I don't live in a trouble and I won't live in a driver

All mobile home parks should be required to have shelters.

Well get ready for more expensive mobile homes if you want them to be safer instead of simply convenient and affordable.

Has anyone been manipulating the weather ,by way of cloud seeding this makes storms worse ,check it out if you’re alive !!