Columnist Al Mascitti of The [Del.] News Journal describes a group of Americans who are currently getting screwed because they lack the power, property or legal protection to defend themselves.
Equity Lifestyle Properties, formerly known as Manufactured Home Communities, owns six such parks with more than 2,200 lots in Sussex County. Last spring it socked many of its tenants with astronomical rent increases, despite leases with clauses that seemingly prevented them.
I live in an apartment. Ninety days before my current lease expires, I will get a letter from my landlord informing me of any increase in the rent should I choose to renew the lease. If the increase is reasonable (last year it went up $28), I will probably stay. But if the landlord decided to increase my rent by 30 percent or more — $200 to $300 a month — then I'd be outta here. Sure, moving is inconvenient, and changing your address/phone/ISP is a pain. But I'm still more or less free to just say no and move somewhere else. That freedom means I can't be extorted into paying exorbitant rent.
The tenants of ELP's properties do not have such freedom.
The term "mobile home" — like the term "trailer" — is misleading. These manufactured homes are not easy, or cheap, to relocate. For many tenants, the cost of moving their home would exceed its value.
So unless Delaware lawmakers intervene with some kind of legal protection for these people, they're screwed. They will lose their homes and the thousands of dollars of equity they have put into them.
This is a job for Democrats.
Forget all the red-state/blue-state nonsense. Forget all the hardspun stereotypes about northeastern elites and their condescending attitude toward the common folk of the rural heartland. None of that is relevant.
What matters is that the rich, propertied and powerful are once again turning the screws on the poor and the powerless. We've only got two political parties in this country. One of them gives a damn about the poor and the powerless and the other does not. That's the difference — and yes, it's an explicitly moral difference — and that's all that matters here.
Strategically, it might be shrewd for Democrats to take this issue and run with it. Becoming vocal, effective champions on behalf of mobile home tenants would help to counter a lot of the Brooksian babble about cultural elitism. It would also make Republicans play defense on their own turf — in the heart of the heartland and the reddest counties of the red states.
But you know what? None of those strategic considerations matter either.
Poor people are literally getting fleeced out of house and home. If Democrats can't stand up for them — if they can't protect them and give them the power to fight back — then what good does it do to be a Democrat anyway?
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