Impact Communities has bought out at least four of Laramie’s largest trailer parks through an interconnected web of LLCs. Residents face skyrocketing rents as evictions are handed out “like candy.”
Thanks for reporting on this. The majority of people that they victimize are the poorest and least able to fight back. It's really sickening, it's high time Wyoming and Albany county stepped up to protect some of their most vulnerable citizens.
Thank you for reading. Part 2 will delve into the business philosophy driving Impact's rent hikes, but Part 3 will explore solutions, both community-based and legislative.
Thank you for reading! This series took a long time to put together and to get right but I'm proud of the results. Keep an eye out for parts 2 and 3 tomorrow and make sure to share with your neighbors!
I would love to talk to you more about this - I am a resident in one of the moble home parks and have more insights into this buy up of affordable housing.
This is what happens when greed goes unchecked in a place which has more need than it does supply. It’s incredibly sad to see that you read through the pain and grief these people have gone through, and instead of wanting to join in on solutions for our neighbors in these parks, you point fingers at regulation, of which there is practically none for these folks.
These people own their homes. The tired argument of over regulating landlords does not work here.
I am by no means minimizing these tenants' pain and grief. It is horrendous and needless. We need constructive solutions, not overreguation and bureaucracy (which have made matters much worse - not just for residents of mobile homes but for tenants in general).
There is nothing protecting these tenants who own their home but pay outrageous rent prices for the ground. Nor are there any regulations on this company. You are minimizing their grief by using a straw man argument that doesn’t apply to this situation because you’re centering your own concerns instead of this community. I guess that’s why you run for city council repeatedly and lose, you’re only concerned about Brett Glass.
False. I'm more concerned about these tenants' plight than you are. I've watched for years as Council members have worked to eliminate trailer parks within the city limits, leaving owners of trailers with no choice of location. The answer is competition. You are advocating rent control, which would backfire. Government bloat and overregulation don't work.
Take your political talking points and get on a soapbox somewhere else these articles are about real people and the ONLY Politician who has offered an ear and helped residents has been Rep. Karlee Provenza! From everyone one else all we have heard is crickets! I see you are great at self-promotion but lack any real context to your statements. If you do care about the residents then talk to them, saying you care isn't caring its self-promotion.
I'm no "politician." I'm an ordinary citizen. I'm a small business owner, a tenant, a homeowner, and a rental property manager who studied economics at Stanford and wants good things to happen in Laramie. That's why I am volunteering (yes, it's local volunteer work, not some big political office in a faraway place) to sit on the City Council. Karlee Provenza is a hyperpartisan state politician - she has spent substantial amounts of money and even formed a shadowy PAC in an attempt to turn our nonpartisan City Council partisan - who has no understanding of economics, business, or housing. She has naïvely advocated policies that would harm those residents (whom I have listened to - hundreds of them; I have even guided some of them toward solutions they did not know existed). Blogger Jeff Victor - who wants to make a career of demonizing all rental property owners and landlords, including the good local ones - has gone along.
What we need in Laramie is to apply sound economic principles to the problems faced by local residents. Not rah-rah politics; not partisanship; not demonization; not overregulation and endless bureaucracy. I am the only contender in my ward who has put forth CONCRETE, SPECIFIC proposals to solve the problems currently faced by Laramie residents. And I'll continue to do so, no matter how online trolls blather.
Overregulation? Exactly how is mobile home parks overregulated? Because there actually are NO laws or regulations for mobile home owners. That's the problem. We have NO legal recourse at all. We are at the mercy of every Tom Dick or Harry to buy the park and then we are stuck. There's no one helping us. I've contacted experienced lawyers and they basically said you have NO rights at all. You do what they say and want no matter how ridiculous the request. They told me that the park could demand you reside your home every year and if you don't they will just 'choose' not to renew your lease. Then when you can't move your home they will repo it and evict you. Absolutely, NO legal recourse for that. He tole me, 'You'll find yourself on the street with a suitcase and no where to go and there won't be anything anyone can do about it." So tell me again what OVERREGULATION are you talking about ?
I'm talking about the overregulation of mobile home parks that precludes new ones from being built within the city limits, leaving the existing parks with no competition. Competition is the best remedy for consumer-hostile business practices.
Not all mobile home park residents are poor. I personally know some very well-to-do residents of Laramie's Prairie's Edge, for example. That being said, many of our past City Council members (and a few current ones) have been opposed to allowing more to be established. This is a shame, because market forces (especially competition) are more powerful than any lawyer or contract.
Thanks for reporting on this. The majority of people that they victimize are the poorest and least able to fight back. It's really sickening, it's high time Wyoming and Albany county stepped up to protect some of their most vulnerable citizens.
Thank you for reading. Part 2 will delve into the business philosophy driving Impact's rent hikes, but Part 3 will explore solutions, both community-based and legislative.
I look forward to it, as a person who lives in one of the communities that has yet to be bought out, it's truly terrifying.
Thank you for writing this piece and all the others I have enjoyed reading!
Thank you for reading! This series took a long time to put together and to get right but I'm proud of the results. Keep an eye out for parts 2 and 3 tomorrow and make sure to share with your neighbors!
I would love to talk to you more about this - I am a resident in one of the moble home parks and have more insights into this buy up of affordable housing.
Please send me an email at jeffvictorwyo@gmail.com I'd love to reach out. I plan on doing an update sometime in the coming months
This is what happens when you force good, local landlords to sell via unnecessary overregulation and bureaucracy. Quite a few are doing that now.
This is what happens when greed goes unchecked in a place which has more need than it does supply. It’s incredibly sad to see that you read through the pain and grief these people have gone through, and instead of wanting to join in on solutions for our neighbors in these parks, you point fingers at regulation, of which there is practically none for these folks.
These people own their homes. The tired argument of over regulating landlords does not work here.
I am by no means minimizing these tenants' pain and grief. It is horrendous and needless. We need constructive solutions, not overreguation and bureaucracy (which have made matters much worse - not just for residents of mobile homes but for tenants in general).
There is nothing protecting these tenants who own their home but pay outrageous rent prices for the ground. Nor are there any regulations on this company. You are minimizing their grief by using a straw man argument that doesn’t apply to this situation because you’re centering your own concerns instead of this community. I guess that’s why you run for city council repeatedly and lose, you’re only concerned about Brett Glass.
False. I'm more concerned about these tenants' plight than you are. I've watched for years as Council members have worked to eliminate trailer parks within the city limits, leaving owners of trailers with no choice of location. The answer is competition. You are advocating rent control, which would backfire. Government bloat and overregulation don't work.
Take your political talking points and get on a soapbox somewhere else these articles are about real people and the ONLY Politician who has offered an ear and helped residents has been Rep. Karlee Provenza! From everyone one else all we have heard is crickets! I see you are great at self-promotion but lack any real context to your statements. If you do care about the residents then talk to them, saying you care isn't caring its self-promotion.
I'm no "politician." I'm an ordinary citizen. I'm a small business owner, a tenant, a homeowner, and a rental property manager who studied economics at Stanford and wants good things to happen in Laramie. That's why I am volunteering (yes, it's local volunteer work, not some big political office in a faraway place) to sit on the City Council. Karlee Provenza is a hyperpartisan state politician - she has spent substantial amounts of money and even formed a shadowy PAC in an attempt to turn our nonpartisan City Council partisan - who has no understanding of economics, business, or housing. She has naïvely advocated policies that would harm those residents (whom I have listened to - hundreds of them; I have even guided some of them toward solutions they did not know existed). Blogger Jeff Victor - who wants to make a career of demonizing all rental property owners and landlords, including the good local ones - has gone along.
What we need in Laramie is to apply sound economic principles to the problems faced by local residents. Not rah-rah politics; not partisanship; not demonization; not overregulation and endless bureaucracy. I am the only contender in my ward who has put forth CONCRETE, SPECIFIC proposals to solve the problems currently faced by Laramie residents. And I'll continue to do so, no matter how online trolls blather.
Overregulation? Exactly how is mobile home parks overregulated? Because there actually are NO laws or regulations for mobile home owners. That's the problem. We have NO legal recourse at all. We are at the mercy of every Tom Dick or Harry to buy the park and then we are stuck. There's no one helping us. I've contacted experienced lawyers and they basically said you have NO rights at all. You do what they say and want no matter how ridiculous the request. They told me that the park could demand you reside your home every year and if you don't they will just 'choose' not to renew your lease. Then when you can't move your home they will repo it and evict you. Absolutely, NO legal recourse for that. He tole me, 'You'll find yourself on the street with a suitcase and no where to go and there won't be anything anyone can do about it." So tell me again what OVERREGULATION are you talking about ?
I'm talking about the overregulation of mobile home parks that precludes new ones from being built within the city limits, leaving the existing parks with no competition. Competition is the best remedy for consumer-hostile business practices.
No city wants mobile home parks. The parks shows the public what poverty really looks like and the public doesn't want to see that.
Not all mobile home park residents are poor. I personally know some very well-to-do residents of Laramie's Prairie's Edge, for example. That being said, many of our past City Council members (and a few current ones) have been opposed to allowing more to be established. This is a shame, because market forces (especially competition) are more powerful than any lawyer or contract.
They took the $$$$, its always about the $$$.