LYNNWOOD—When corporate investor Collective Communities bought Royalwood Estates, a manufactured housing community in Lynnwood, last year, tenants were hit with a whopping increase to rents, raising as much as $300 within just one year plus added fees. With the rent set to increase another $100 this summer, many of the tenants are now facing homelessness, unable to relocate their homes or keep up with the ever-increasing cost of rent.

Everyone living in the 85 manufactured homes within Royalwood Estates own their homes but not the land in which their homes are built upon.

Additionally, these homes were built prior to 1979 and are therefore prohibited to relocate due to an existing state law—at risk of irreparable structural damages. With many of the community’s residents being senior citizens living on a fixed income or low income, or both, increasing rents may force them to surrender their homes indefinitely and struggle to find a new place to live, even if that means the streets.

The average cost of a manufactured home in Washington state is approximately $135,000 according to manufacturedhomes.com. Most of Royalwood’s residents cashed in their pension to purchase their homes believing it would be an investment that would last the remainder of their lives. Now they struggle to make rent let alone pay for food and other necessities.

There are about 70,000 manufactured homeowners, and their families, living in approximately 1,200 manufactured housing communities throughout the state of Washington.

Lynnwood has 20 manufactured home parks, 15 within the city limits and six in unincorporated Lynnwood. For comparison Mountlake Terrace has three manufactured home parks, Edmonds has two, Mill Creek has one, Mukilteo has none.

While many protections exist for tenants renting their living spaces in apartment buildings or other similar living conditions, very few protections exist for those who own their homes built upon land they’re required to rent.

State law, RCW 59.20 specifically, governs the relationship between the homeowners living in manufactured housing communities and their landlords. This law is separate and differential from the residential landlord/tenant law because in the 1970’s the state legislature acknowledged that people who own their homes but rent the land under their homes required separate and different protections.

Prior to Collective Communities purchasing the community back in March of 2023, Royalwood Estates had been family-owned for a number of years. But when its owners passed away, the ownership was passed down to kin who simply didn’t want the responsibility of owning and operating it. The private sale of Royalwood to Collective Communities was part of a three-community manufactured home park deal which also included properties in Bothell and Gig Harbor.

Collective Communities, based out of California, has been active in purchasing manufactured housing communities since at least 2020.

“They are severely impacting what should be a good source of low-income housing and instead these rents are skyrocketing,” said Lynnwood City Council President George Hurst.

Residents of Royalwood were notified that their rent would be increasing from $640 to $740, effective June 1, 2023, as part of Collective Communities’ purchase of the community. In February 2024, tenants were again notified that their rent would be increasing another $100 – from $740 to $840 – but in addition to this brand new, separate, fees were announced including flat rates of $25 for garbage, $11.95 for water, $48.53 for sewer, and $15.65 for storm drain. There could be added fees based on actual water usage (every unit has a meter) and whether or not Wastewater has additional charges.

All of these utility fees had previously been included in the monthly rent rate so in addition to having rent increase from $640 to $840 a month in just one year, tenants are now paying, at minimum, $101.13 for utilities. To own a home in Royalwood in 2023 cost $640 a month. Now it cost, at minimum, $941 a month.

At Lynnwood City Council’s Work Session on Monday, May 6, 15 of these residents appeared before council to voice their pleas to the city.

Ishbel Dickens, former attorney and longtime advocate for manufactured homeowners, was first to speak on the matter.

Dickens has been working with, and for, manufactured homeowners for over 30 years, as a community organizer, as an attorney, as Director of the National Manufactured Homeowners Association, as a consultant for various jurisdictions, and now back in her original capacity as a volunteer for Association for Manufactured Homeowners—a statewide organization for people who own their homes and live in manufactured home communities.

She also worked with the Lynnwood City Council back in 2010 when the Manufactured Housing Zoning Ordinance was passed. This ordinance laid the groundwork to preserve various manufactured housing communities throughout Lynnwood.

“You can’t move the home, ‘mobile’ is a huge misnomer,” said Dickens. “That home is built, created, made to be placed in one spot and not moved and that becomes a real challenge for manufactured homeowners who are constantly facing economic eviction through the ever-increasing rents.”

Dickens often refers to manufactured homeowners as “prisoners in their own homes” because they do not have the ability to move and are constantly at the mercy of predatory landlords who “seem to want to nickel and dime them through various fees and charges and an ever-increasing rent.”

Some examples of “nickel-and-diming” involve charging tenants fees to receive notice that their rent is due, or charging fees when tenants decide to pay their rent in cash, check, or any other way other than a bank transfer.  Again, many of these tenants are senior citizens who live off a fixed income and are dependent on social security checks but if their rent is due on the first and they don’t receive social security until the 8th, for example, then their rent will always be short because the landlord charges them for a late fee first.

Rents in manufactured housing communities have increased anywhere between 20% and 60%. In one manufactured housing community in southwest Washington rent increased $1,000 a month.

“That’s because the landlord can. When they increase the rent, tenants move out, the landlords repossess their homes and sells it to the next unsuspecting homeowner,” said Dickens. “It really is a disastrous situation for many people.”

Dorian Deutsch, Royalwood resident and disabled veteran, purchased her home 10 years ago with the thought that she could actually be able to afford a home without having to live out on the streets like many of her fellow vets.

“When I bought my house 10 years ago, I really thought that I had secured something where I could live out and contribute to the community,” said Deutsch. “Each year, since I bought it, the rent would go up approximately $15 to $20 per month which was doable. As of last June we’ve had a cost increase of approximately $3,600 in total for every year, for not only the rent increases but also all of the utilities they’re nickel and diming us for.”

Tenants are left responsible for paying for all of these requirements out-of-pocket.

Deutsch also said Collective Communities has mandated many unreasonable requirements such as removing all air conditioning units that sit outside a window, all car ports are required to be made of the same color and material as the building and install new expensive windows—all at the owner’s expense.

“I moved into [Royalwood] to feel safe and secure and I also planned my retirement to live out my days 10-minutes to my daughter one way and 10-minutes to my daughter the other day to help out with my grandchildren. It seemed perfect,” said Ella Olsen, 70, of Royalwood Estates. “My house, which I bought is a manufactured home but I still don’t own the square underneath so they can do anything they want to us…This company really doesn’t care about the residents they care about the money they’re making.”

Maria Wilson, another Royalwood resident, said that when she moved to Royalwood 14 years ago it was a “beautiful, sweet, place,” where “everyone was so kind and “became a family” with many of them left without a family of their own.

“Now we’re being bullied not only by the corporation but by the manager. The manager is rude to use, she treats us like children, and she thinks because we’re older, and we’re quiet, and we’re kind, that we’re weak,” said Wilson. “We want to have a voice to be heard.”

When Leonora Carrol, yet another Royalwood resident, moved to the community rent was $485 a month. Now her pension and social security are quickly dwindling.

“When people ask me how I am I say fine but I’m not fine. I can’t sleep at night. I had a nightmare the other night where I was constantly running and running and running in my dream. I can’t eat,” said Carrol. “I feel lost. I feel like the black holes of space are going to suck me up. I have no seat, no grounding, I’m like lost in space and I’m sure everyone else feels the same way. I thought for sure I was comfortable until last June. The corporate raiders are feasting on us.”

Another resident, Catherine Jenkins, said after all her bills are paid to Royalwood, she is left with just $9 a month for food, gas, and credit card payments.

Jenkins also stated that since Collective Communities purchased the community residents have not been presented a single rental agreement to sign.

Many tenants at Royalwood Estates shared that with the increase in utility fees and rent, there have been little to no noticeable improvements at the community. The sewers, for example, back up every time it rains but Collective Communities refuses to do anything about it.

Although some other jurisdictions statewide such as Aberdeen, Spokane, and Kenmore have also taken stride to protect their manufactured housing communities at the state level, progress has not been quite as successful.

House Bill 2114, co-sponsored by Representative Strom Peterson (D-Edmonds), a rent stabilization bill for manufactured homeowners, passed the house but stumbled in the Senate this last session.

The bill, if passed, would have improved housing stability for tenants, subject to the residential landlord-tenant act and the manufactured/mobile home landlord-tenant act, by limiting rent and fee increases, requiring notice of rent and fee increases, limiting fees and deposits, establishing a landlord resource center and associated services, authorizing tenant lease termination, creating parity between lease types, and providing for attorney general enforcement.

On a positive note, law makers did pass a bill this session that requires landlords to give a two-year notice (from one year) before they can close a manufactured housing community. This might not seem like much of an improvement, given owners of manufactured homes essentially surrender their houses, their largest asset when relocating, but it’s still better than most other states in the nation.

Within this same legislation, when landlords decide to sell their community, they are now required to notify the homeowners, housing authorities, and other eligible organizations including resident-owned communities and land trusts so that these organizations may make an offer and potentially preserve these communities. However, because of high land values, it can be a challenge for nonprofits to secure the funding needed to purchase the land.

HB 2114 is set to be reintroduced to the legislature in the 2025 legislative session but many residents at Royalwood Estate fear they won’t make it another year to see if it passes assuming the bill passes and takes effect that year.

Manufactured Home Ownership Public Forum

Homage Senior Services will be hosting a Manufactured Home Ownership Public Forum from 6 to 8 p.m. on Thursday, May 30, located at 5026 196^th Street SW, Lynnwood. Three panels of speakers will be moderated by Dave Ross of KIRO radio. An audience 30-minute Q&A session will conclude the forum.

Panel 1– Manufactured Home Ownership (30 min)

• Anne Sadler -Washington Association of Manufactured Home Owners
• Ishbel Dickens- retired attorney, advocate
• Duane Leonard- Housing Authority of Snohomish County
• Collective Communities Property Management

Panel 2– Resources for the MHO Community (30min)

• Kim Toskey- Homes and Hope Community Land Trust
• Victoria O’Banion- ROC NW
• Washington State Department of Commerce
  • Ann Campbell – Managing Director Homeownership Unit
  • Brigid Henderson- Manager Manufactured Home Relocation          
• Washington State Attorney General Office
  • Seann Colgan- Litigation Section Chief-Consumer Protection
• Susan Chriest-Snohomish County Housing and Community Services

Panel 3– Elected Officials looking for solutions (30 min)

• Strom Peterson- State Representative and County Council
• June Robinson- State Senator
• George Hurst- Lynnwood City Council
• Jared Mead- Snohomish County Council Chair