Blake Alvies

My name is Blake Alvies, and I’ve lived in Gaslite Mobile Home Park for 6 years. I moved here because it was a quiet, senior community, well back off the main road – and because my parents lived here. 

Blake is smiling inside a bathroom. He wears glasses and a blue collared shirt with flowers on it.

We’ve had three owners since I moved in. The original owners were great, but we haven’t even had a lease since 2019. I don’t mind paying lot rent, but we don’t get anything for it. There is grass growing in the cracks in the road, trees go untrimmed, and even the sign at the front of the park is about to fall apart. 

Now the new owners have raised our lot rent $160 a month! 

There’s no way my mother or I could afford this kind of increase (my dad passed away), so I had to sell my home and move in with her. 

I consider myself a very young and enthusiastic 63 years old, and I try to enjoy life every day, but these park owners really know how to pile on the stress.  This is a senior community, and most of us can just go out and start making another $160 a month. It’s not right to treat people this way.

We tried to work with these new owners, who also bought two other parks in the area, but no luck. When I told the manager, “You’re shooting yourself in the foot. People are going to move out,” he said, “Let ‘em try to find something cheaper!”

Well, I found cheaper parks, but it’s not so simple when you own your home. You can’t just move it. And you never know when that one will get bought out by some big predatory company. 

That’s why we need stronger protections against these companies just sucking more and more money out of seniors on fixed incomes.