WA mobile home communities organize against 'economic eviction'
From her pristine garden to her punchy graphic tees, 78-year-old Judie Short emanates a great warmth and appreciation for everything around her.
Upon entering her home in Aberdeen’s Leisure Manor Estates, guests find an office nook lined with vintage knickknacks and Seattle Seahawks memorabilia. Her kitchen shines in a resplendent shade of cherry red, and its many windows let in sunlight that carries on to the rest of the house. It’s a three-bedroom home, but she has converted the second and third bedrooms into a cat-themed craft room and a playroom for when her grandchildren come to visit.
“When we moved in five years ago, it was going to be an affordable place to live and … everybody here got along so well,” she said. “We had activities and you could go out and walk and visit with people and it's just a good community – and now everybody's nervous and nobody knows what's going to happen next.”
In late 2021, Port Orchard-based mobile home management company, Hurst & Son LLC, acquired Leisure Manor in a string of pandemic-era purchases – and since then, its tenants have faced steep rent increases, threatening them with “economic eviction,” along with new alleged problems with upkeep and maintenance that did not exist before.
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https://crosscut.com/investigations/2023/08/wa-mobile-home-communities-organize-against-economic-eviction