Trailer Park Residents Are Forming Cooperatives

Industries built to make money from the poorest part of society, particularly in the form of rents, should be scrutinized heavily at the least.

But to be honest, I don’t think any society which tolerates profiting from its citizens’ poverty can last. It’s a sign of a society whose values are in decline and whose relationship to justice is patchy.

We need to distinguish between the concept of housing as a good (something to be bought, owned, and invested in in the sense of improvement/effort) and an investment (REITs, short-term rental portfolio, non-human scale landlords). The latter is an unsustainable risk and out of accord with the traditional values of property and ownership. If the best way to succeed in society is to take rents from your fellow man, that society is unwell and approaching feudalism.

I have a relative who is a trailer home/efficiency landlord on multiple properties.

I asked hen* once what it was like and hen said, rent is due weekly and paid in advance--and there's a lot of demand for that.

On the one hand, hen is giving a place to stay for people who could not afford longer-term rentals or their contract. On the other hand, hen is supporting hen's family off of hen's reputation (ability to convince the bank that hen is good for a loan) by taking money from people who do not have such a reputation.

ROCs sounds like a great idea, but I wonder how they work any better than HOAs given the power...

*Hen: swedish gender singular neutral. Better/simpler to my ears than they/them

We have a good friend who lives in a trailer park where they own the trailers but not the land. The park was sold and the new owner is raising the rent incredibly quickly and there's nothing the residents can do about it. People want to leave but they can't sell because any new owner (of the trailer) will be charged greatly increased rent. Scum.