Congresswoman Abby Finkenauer, other lawmakers meet with mobile home park residents on "unfair practices"

People living in several mobile home parks in eastern Iowa want lawmakers in Iowa and in Washington to take action against what they claim are unfair practices.

That's after out-of-state groups bought the properties.

On Friday night, residents at Table Mound mobile Home Park in Dubuque brought the issue to congressional and state lawmakers.

"I was paying $270 a month that includes utilities. Now, I'm paying $370 a month, plus utilities. That's an extra $150 a month," said Frank Shepherd, a resident at the park.

"If this continues I will not be able to retire, won't be able to afford to retire," said Al Hawkinson, another resident.

City, County, State, and Congressional leaders all met with Table Mound Mobile Home Park residents outraged at these recent rent increases, on top of other fees they are being charged.

"We just got confirmation they are raising rent another 50 dollars for some of us that's over 500 dollars just for a piece of land," commented another resident.

First District Congresswoman Abby Finkenauer says it's something they've seen happen with companies like Impact Communities, the national company that bought the park two years ago.

"We've got some issues and it's folks taking advantage of folks who served our country hard-working Iowans," she said.

Back in November, the Dubuque City Council voted to allow housing choice vouchers for mobile homeowners to help pay rent, but city councilor Brett Shaw says the company won't accept them.

"Every law and angle we've looked at to try and find protections is completely feng shui,” said Shaw.

The Chair of the Dubuque County Board of Supervisors says the same happened when their Veteran Affairs Commission tried to intervene in a veteran getting evicted.

“(he was about to get evicted) And our folks we’re like wait a minute we sent you a check. Impact community said, we didn't get it, so our veterans staff did the right thing, and used their credit card and kept him in there, and that generated a $50 late fee and 30 dollar credit card fee," said Dave Baker.

Finkenauer says she stands behind her call for a federal investigation into this and plans to work across the aisle with lawmakers to find protections against these actions that may be legal but are still wrong

"There has to be real precautions here whether it's 180-day notice or whether it's I know the state is working on this -Rep. James and Senator Walhs and Jochum and many others - whether it's putting a cap on the percentage it can be increased. These are real things we can be doing here"

Residents say they plan to keep fighting and meet with the City Manager about solutions next week.