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After having their mobile home park sold, rent rates hiked 70% and a series of frustrations such as water supply interruptions, residents of a local mobile home park north of Gunnison took legal action against their new owners and last week secured an initial victory in the case. Gunnison District Court granted the residents of Ski Town Village mobile home park, formerly named Country Meadows, a preliminary injunction request to prevent the rent increase until the lawsuit is settled.

In one of Denver’s most desirable neighborhoods, the Lower Highlands, 40-year-old Jessica Puzio was home when she heard a knock at her front door last fall. The elderly couple on her doorstep wanted to see the duplex rental they found on Craigslist at her address.

“I had no idea what they were talking about,” Puzio said.

The couple told Puzio they found her 750-square-foot, one-bedroom, one-bath house listed for about $1,000 less than typical rents in the area. This was the first time someone mistook her house for a rental from an online listing — the first of many.

Jada Riley thought she had beaten homelessness.

The 26-year-old New Orleans resident was finally making a steady income cleaning houses during the pandemic to afford a $700-a-month, one-bedroom apartment. But she lost nearly all her clients after Hurricane Ida hit last year. Then she was fired from a grocery store job in February after taking time off to help a relative.

The new owner of the renamed Ski Town Village hasn’t filled the potholes, cut the trees that threaten to fall on homes, or fixed the spotty water supply. But he has raised rents by 73%.

The Marshall fire underscores the need for stronger efforts toward fair, safe and equitable housing. It's best for landlords and tenants alike.

Today, in Fort Collins, Boulder, and Greeley, Governor Jared Polis joined bill sponsors and community leaders in housing, and behavioral health care providers to sign legislation saving Coloradans money on housing and critical behavioral health support, while cutting red tape to ensure Coloradans continue to receive high-quality, efficient services.

Across the country, corporate landlords are expanding manufactured housing portfolios and driving up rents, pushing longtime residents out.

Relief came just before the eleventh hour for tenants at the Clarkson Lodge, many of whom had been preparing to move out with short notice.

On Feb. 28, renters at the Clarkson Lodge told Denver7 they'd been informed the building was sold, and they'd have to be moved out by March 14. The Lodge is a boarding house in Denver's Capitol Hill neighborhood.

Heather Malone holds her daughter Caoimhe, 4, outside their home in the Golden Hills Park for Mobile Homes in Golden on March 9, 2022. Heather and her family have lived at Golden Hills for almost a decade. Colorado lawmakers recently introduced a bill that would add greater protections to mobile home residents throughout the state. The biggest piece of the proposed bill is rent stabilization, which would cap how much mobile home park owners could increase rent per year. Malone, who has three children, is worried that another rent hike would force them out of Golden altogether. Her rent went from $550 per month to $796.

“Colorado is one of the worst states in the country for renters,” state Representative Serena Gonzales-Gutierrez pronounced during a legislative hearing this past session. “This was a problem before COVID, but the pandemic has made this problem worse and brought them into the spotlight."

In a November survey, ServiceMaster focused on tenant and landlord relationships in every state. It reported that more than half — 57 percent — of renters in Colorado believe that landlord-tenant laws are stacked against them.

When Ken Erwin first heard about efforts this past summer among his fellow homeowners to purchase their Golden mobile home park, he counted himself skeptical.

Golden Hills’ new cooperative members weren’t business people, he thought. They don’t know how to run a park.

After the park’s owners rebuffed the residents twice in their attempt to buy Golden Hills, they ended up selling to Harmony Communities, a California-based corporation that operates 33 parks across the western U.S.

Erwin, who managed Golden Hills under its previous owner for more than two decades, thought Harmony would be solid owners, a company that billed itself as “family oriented,” he said.

Veterans and service members, who have sacrificed so much for the wellbeing of their country, should not be denied housing because a landlord harbors unfounded prejudices. Colorado Poverty Law Project is excited to work with Representative Ortiz on legislation in 2022 to ensure that this doesn't happen in Colorado. Read our full press release here and please contact us at jack@copovertylawproject.org if you would like to lend support