Rick Smith

My name is Rick Smith, and I’ve lived in Lake Suzanne Mobile Home Park in Shiloh, IL for 17 years. My dad wasn’t doing so good, so I volunteered to come down here from Indiana and take care of him. After he died, I bought the place, fixed it up, and my son came to live with me.

When I moved here, almost every home was filled, and most everyone was friendly. The original owners had a few simple rules and raised lot rent maybe $25 every 3-4 years. Then these idiots came in. Homes of America bought the place, and oh, has it changed!

They hit us right away with a 65% increase between lot rent and new charges and fees.  Renters are being gouged even more, paying outrageous rent. We’ve had 14 managers in 11 months! We get someone in there who starts caring, and suddenly there is a reason to fire them.

Things are getting a little bit more difficult with my Parkinsons. It’s hard to write. Unfortunately I trusted some of the ladies in the office to help me fill out my money orders for rent. Then Homes of America came back saying they had no record of $4700 I had paid. I had to pay it again. They’ve done that to at least two other people I know too.

We’ve got over 115 homes, and I bet there aren’t twenty of them occupied now. It’s terrible. They’ve destroyed a whole community of affordable housing in a couple of years, for what?