Ludlow mobile home rent board weighing whether rents should go up at West St. Village

LUDLOW — Should the rent on the lots at a mobile home community in Ludlow increase?

That is the question that sits in front of the town's Mobile Home Rent Control Board.

On Monday night, tenants of the West Street Village Mobile Home Community testified why the rents shouldn't increase. The park's owner, Tom Lennon, argues the rents should increase, because he's made "capital improvements" on the property since purchasing it, his attorney Robert Krause said.

"He's making this more about money than people," said Laura Malfino, a resident of the park for four decades, which has more than 40 mobile homes. Most of the tenants who live there are older or cost-burdened. Some are disabled.

Everyone owns their mobile homes, but they pay rent on the land the homes sit upon. Lennon owns the land, which he purchased in 2021.

A previous meeting of the rent control board in 2023 approved a $300 jump in rent, forcing tenants there to scramble to find $503 to send to Lennon.

The purpose of the rent control board meeting was to relay the accurate record from both Lennon, the applicant for the rent increase, and the tenants, about life at the park.

The board did not decide whether the rent will be increased or if it will remain at its lower, original rate by the end of the meeting Monday.

Amanda Sturtevant, a resident of the West Street Village Mobile Home Community in Ludlow, speaks Monday to the media about how a proposed $300 rent increase would affect her livelihood. (Namu Sampath / The Republican)The Republican

For almost two years, three plaintiffs — Amanda Sturtevant, Ethan Field and Debee Boulanger — have fought with Lennon, demanding that he return the rate to the original $207 per month.

In June, after appealing their case in Housing Court, a judge ordered Lennon to return the rent to the lower amount , but he ultimately said that the board would have the final say on whether the rent will increase.

Lennon told the board Monday that he needs the rent increase to pay for the tenants' utilities and other expenses, including maintenance of the park.

He acknowledged the park isn't state-sanctioned low income housing, but it does offer an affordable alternative to homeownership, he said.

"People will say, (I'm on) a fixed income. ... Everyone's on a fixed income. I make $200,000 a year; that's a fixed income," he said. Lennon said tenants who are lower income can seek assistance programs like SNAP, fuel assistance and air conditioners to "maintain their homes."

Lennon and Krause declined to speak to a reporter after the meeting Monday, citing the board's pending decision on whether the rents should increase.

"We're just little people," said Malfino. "It was exorbitant when the rent increased to $503. There's heaps of garbage left out in the field, and the area is neglected."

The tenants at the park don't feel Lennon has addressed any of the key systemic problems facing the park: aging electrical wiring, poor septic tanks and a lack of lighting.

Boulanger, one of the plaintiffs, offered the board photographic evidence of all of the problems the tenants have been experiencing.

Sturtevant, another plaintiff, uses a wheelchair. She is seeking other, more accessible housing elsewhere in the state.

"It's so hard to get in and out of my unit in my wheelchair," she said, citing that it is not compliant with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Earlier this year, the residents called on Lennon to halt chopping down the trees that dotted the park, offering privacy to tenants between their homes.

Some residents said they believed the tree work was retaliatory because they were legally challenging the increase of rent at the park.

"These were mostly all strong and healthy trees," said Field, resident and the president of the park's housing association.

Lennon, on the other hand, claims he is a "good landlord," explaining to the board he visits the park weekly from the eastern part of the state, where he lives, to make sure things are OK.

"You can ask anyone ... anyone that calls me, I call them back," he told the board, giving examples of when people have called him — if a tree fell or the septic was backed up. "I'm calling the Roto-Rooter guy. I got him on speed dial. I got guys going over, doing work in there. I take care of them."

The town's rent control board exists because it was found and declared that there was a "public emergency" in the town, said attorney Joel Feldman, the housing lawyer representing three of the tenants who took the board to court last year.

The emergency "had been created by excessive, abnormally high and unwarranted rental increases imposed by some owners of mobile home parks," he said.

"Look at what you're supposed to look at — the adequacy of repairs and the ownership of the park," Feldman said. "Don't increase the rent and exclude operating expenses that aren't reasonable."

Krause said he hadn't heard any "credible" evidence from the tenants who testified or from Feldman.

"There is not one shred of paper to substantiate the issues brought up," he said.

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