Demand high but space scarce at Manitoba trailer parks

Mobile home sales are going up in Manitoba but at the same time, space at trailer parks is scarce.

And it's all happening as more than 140 people are now scrambling to find new places to park their trailer homes after being evicted from Kingsway Kort in Brandon.

Colleen Weisbrodt is one of them.

She's phoned every park in the Brandon area but has had no luck finding a spot. She owns two trailers in Kingsway court, one she lives in and another she rents out.

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Now she'll either have to move both, or walk away from them. She fears she'll end up homeless. 

One mobile home dealer in Brandon sales for new trailers is up 20 per cent this year, but all are going to rural, private lots.

Debbie Penner runs two parks one in Morden and one in Winkler. She also formed the Manitoba Park Owners Association.

She said parks are popular because they are cost effective.

"We started our parks in 1998 and they filled up very, very, very, fast."

Kenny Choy, who owns Glendale Mobile Home Park, has more than 230 lots on 30 acres of land and all are full — and have been for 10 years.

"We have requests for them all the time, especially when the Kingsway news came about. We got lots of phone calls," he said.

He wishes he could help the evicted residents out but just can’t.

"I don’t know who has extra land in Brandon. Everything seems to be full."

Penner expects there will likely be more park closures like Kingsway Kort in the future because mobile home parks are hindered by rent regulations and face steep operating costs. But unless the legislation changes, things aren't likely to improve.

"I think we are going to see more closures," she said. "This is number three that's been shut down in the last ten years. It's all basically due to infrastructure costs."

Out of whack with reality

Penner said the government's approach to trailer parks is out of whack with reality.

"Right now, they look at a mobile home park, and I rent out a lot, and they look at that like an apartment. It's not the same," she said.

Setting up a park is essentially like setting up a town, with sewer lines, water lines, sometimes water treatment facilities and roads, Penner said.

That adds a lot to park management's overhead, and allowing only a one per cent rental increase a year is not viable.

Those comments are echoed by Choy, who has looked to expand within and even outside Brandon but moving outside the city limits is too tricky with the expense.

"Imagine, you have to buy the land and put in all the services. It's costly. It's a long-term development that you have to do," he said.

Penner said the bottom line is providing a safe and secure place for people to live and the province needs to consider that.

"A lot of forethought needs to go into what [the] legislation needs [to be], to allow these businesses to run. And that would ultimately protect people that live in the homes," she said.