Historically, the Democratic Party champions the working class while the Republican Party favors big business and the rich.
In 2013, then-Gov. Jack Markell signed the Rent Justification Act sponsored by Democrat Bruce Ennis and co-sponsored by several other Democrats with no Republican co-sponsors. The law was enacted to finally give over 70,000 tenants in almost 200 manufactured home communities protection from unscrupulous landowners that are using predatory pricing practices against defenseless low-cost/low-income/elderly tenants.
The new law’s intent is to provide protection to tenants from landowners that continue to believe they have the right to raise rents for basically any reason. Further, a cumbersome and lengthy arbitration/court process makes it difficult to stop increases once they are in place.
I realize some of you actually believe Republicans when they say they will help you. However, if you look at their tax bill - the Congressional Budget Office has said over 80 percent of the savings will go to the rich. So look in your pocket - how much has actually trickled down to you? In fact, if you factor in higher inflation, all of the increase has been lost, and your buying power has actually gone down. If you want rent increase legislation that will protect you - you must unite to vote for more Democrats - because they are your best hope for actually saving you money.
In 2018, the Republicans sponsored a bill establishing the Manufactured Housing Task Force to review and propose revisions to the Manufactured Owners and Community Owners Act. The current law was essentially written by the landowners’ lawyer and was written to the landowners’ advantage. In fact, almost all of the landowners’ costs are paid for by the tenants, resulting in huge profit margins and returns on investment for the landowners. If changes to the law are enacted as proposed by the landowners - tenants will never be able to ensure that their rent increases are reasonable.
The landowners have used their money power to establish the First State Manufactured Housing Political Action Committee that pays hundreds of thousands of dollars each year to sway Republicans and a few targeted Democrats to vote for manufactured housing laws that are favorable to the landowners.
While we don’t have the landowners’ money power, we do have our voting power that we must use to stop landowner-favorable changes to the law.
Robert Weymouth
Rehoboth Beach
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