About 250 people in Killingworth — the largest group to file a complaint with a fair rent commission in recent history — will get a one-year reprieve from increases after the town’s committee rejected their landowner’s rent adjustment plan.
The Killingworth Fair Rent Commission on Saturday denied a request from Sun Communities, a national firm, to increase monthly land rents at the park by $27 a month. The mobile park owners had argued the proposal was harsh and unconscionable. The Beechwood mobile home park in Killingworth has about 300 homes, and all are reserved for people 55 years and older, but the decision only applies to the nearly 200 homes involved in the complaint.
Residents own their homes but pay rent on the land the homes sit on. Mobile homes are difficult and sometimes impossible to move, so residents say they are captive and forced to pay land rents they can’t afford.
Many of the residents are on Social Security and said that with their fixed incomes they can’t afford the regular rent increases.
“We are not renters who can easily relocate. We are homeowners who have made long term investments in our properties, in this community and in each other. Moving is not a realistic option for most of us, especially for seniors and those with fixed incomes. That reality makes any increase far more consequential,” said Jackie Vece, a Beechwood resident.
Sun Communities purchased the property in 2019 from Jensen’s, a family-owned company based in Connecticut. Since the sale, residents say the services have worsened while land rent rises.
Sun’s attorney, Wilson Carroll, argued that with rising operations expenses and the amount the company pours back into the property, the increases were fair. He also said the rents at Beechwood are lower than or comparable to other parks across the state.
“Under the facts we will present today as applied to the statutory factors considered confident that a $27 increase is fair and equitable,” Carroll said in his opening remarks.
Mobile home residents for years have feared that increasing land rent will make their homes unaffordable. Purchasing a manufactured or mobile home is typically an affordable way to own a home, and many seniors opt to live in a park to keep expenses low. But as housing prices have gone up, so have land rents.
“I ask myself, where will this leave many of us like me in the very near future,” said resident Jen Zakrzewski. “I thank you again for your interest in the mutual community and the plight that we as homeowners are facing.” She told the commission that when she moved into her home in 2023, rent was $516 a month and it’s now nearly $600.
Over the past few legislative sessions, there has been growing political attention on improving safety and affordability at mobile home parks. In 2024, lawmakers passed a bill offering residents the opportunity to purchase their own parks when they go up for sale. Last year, they considered one that would set caps on land rent increases. This year, another one pushed for increased safety measures.
The legislature has also put in place more requirements for towns to have fair rent commissions, which are local bodies that have the ability to respond to complaints and regulate rents. In 2022, lawmakers required towns with populations of 25,000 or more to create commissions. During a November special session, they broadened it to towns with populations of 15,000 or more.
Many questions from the fair rent commission members on Saturday focused on Sun Communities’ profits compared to the cost of the rent increase to residents.
“Nobody’s getting rich in Beechwood, except Sun,” said committee member Ellen Oppenheimer.
Carroll answered that Connecticut law requires the company to look after the best interests of its shareholders.
Vece said in an interview that she and Bill Joyce, a fellow tenant and organizer, helped advocate for the creation of a fair rent committee in Killingworth. The panel was founded in 2022.
“We knew that at some point we wanted to have a place to go to give us a say in what was happening,” Vece said.
