Klobuchar eyes legislation capping land rent increases for Minnesota mobile home residents

Gwen Elliott has loved her mobile home in Blaine, Minnesota, for eight years, but she does not love the rent increases. She owns her home, but not the land it sits on. Since a Utah company purchased the land, her rent has nearly doubled to $700 a month. Despite the name, the home is not, in fact, mobile. Elliott described the situation as "frustrating. Stressful. Unknowing." It's an anxiety she feels every day, wondering when the next rent increase is coming. But the 180,000 families that live in communities like these across the state have a new, very powerful ally in Governor-elect Amy Klobuchar, who made affordable housing a pillar of her campaign. "Supply is really important here. Minnesota is 100,000 units short of housing, from single-family to apartments. Rochester alone is 14,000 short," Klobuchar said in an interview on WCCO Sunday Morning. She says she supports a bill that never got a full vote last legislative session. It would cap land rent increases at 3% and provide homeowners an option to buy the land. "This is an existing bipartisan bill," Klobuchar said. "In the legislature that hasn't passed yet that I'm very interested in working on." Elliott says she and other residents plan to be at the Capitol in January to show support for any legislation that eases expenses for manufactured homeowners. In: Affordable Housing Amy Klobuchar Featured Local Savings