Maine Towns Approve Mobile-Home Rent Caps

Voters in Farmington, Standish and Oakland, Maine, approved citizen-initiated ordinances to limit rent increases for mobile-home lots, amid concerns about rising housing costs and residents being priced out of homes they own. Farmington’s measure passed 2,141 to 1,028 and generally caps increases at inflation or 3 percent, allows one increase every 12 months, and creates a board to review requests for larger hikes. Standish voters approved their ordinance 3,949 to 1,315, while Oakland voters approved theirs 2,164 to 724. In all three towns, residents turned to petitions after local officials had not advanced the measures, and the ordinances establish local oversight of lot-rent increases.