Thursday, October 1, 2026
The Olympia Land Use & Environment Committee is set to consider potential policies to preserve manufactured home communities, as concerns grow over redevelopment, rising lot rents and limited protections for residents.
The committee will continue a discussion on manufactured home community preservation at a meeting on Thursday, March 26.
According to a staff report, manufactured homes make up 2 percent to 3 percent of Olympia’s housing stock but serve as one of the largest sources of affordable housing.
Within city limits, there are 750 to 800 units across 12 communities. Three communities consist of park-owned homes rented to residents, approximately 30 homes; seven are resident-owned homes, around 700 homes; and two include a mix of both ownership types, about 50 homes. Many of the residents are low-income households and older adults.
A staff report on the issue addressed the vulnerability of residents, including the high cost of relocation. Moving a manufactured home is expensive, as local estimates of relocation costs range between $20,000 and $30,000.
State relocation assistance, which ranges from $11,000 for single-wide homes to $17,000 for double-wide or multi-section homes, often falls short of covering the costs and is only available in certain circumstances, such as park closures.
“This gap often leaves residents unable to move their homes, resulting in the loss of both housing and personal investment. Owners of recreational vehicles, travel trailers, and park models are not eligible for state relocation assistance,” the staff report states.
During community meetings held in September 2024 and February 2025, residents raised concerns about lot rents, the potential displacement, the possibility of being sold to corporate owners, and a lack of transparency from property managers.
While residents expressed support for measures, such as longer notice periods for rent increases and relocation assistance, they said those steps would not go far enough.
They are proposing zoning protections that would limit the redevelopment of manufactured home parks into other uses. The residents believed this would reduce displacement risk.
A Thurston Regional Housing Council (RHC) workgroup found that most manufactured home communities in Olympia face a medium to high risk of redevelopment, based on factors, such as zoning and redevelopment potential.
City staffers outlined several strategies for the committee to consider when they discuss the next steps. That includes using zoning tools to limit redevelopment of existing parks into other uses, creating a local preservation fund to support resident purchases and relocation assistance, and offering funding for infrastructure improvements in exchange for long-term affordability commitments.
Additional options include requiring more planning and tenant protections in the event of park closures.
City staffers pointed to the RHC’s “Opportunity Fund,” established in 2024, as a potential model. The fund supports urgent housing needs, including helping resident cooperatives cover acquisition costs when manufactured home communities are put up for sale.
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chrispc2u
Wasn’t Trump just talking about banning corporations from buying up residential properties? Oh, wait…TACO. Trump ALWAYS chickens out of doing anything remotely ethical. He’s too busy killing Voice of America, the EPA, our right to vote, yaddah yaddah yaddah and soon THOUSANDS of US servicemen and women now headed to an insane war he fabricated out of thin air to distract from the Epstein files and so he and his son in law can build mega resorts in GAZA.
Wednesday, March 25 Report this
CommonSenseSenior
Two things:
1. Make a requirement that all park owners give a copy of the current Landlord/Tenant Act for those who own the home but lease the space. Most of these folks don't own a computer. They have no idea WA RCW 59.20 exists and park owners know it and thus get all kinds of illegal things in their lease agreements even though they own the home. Example: RCW 59.20 says that for the first full year of their space rent their rent can NOT be raised, yet there are leases out there that say they 'automatically go up' Jan 1st of each year. So if you buy in Nov or Dec instead of getting no raises for a year the park owner collects money they have no right to beginning Jan 1st instead of giving them the 'first year no increase' required by Landlord/Tenant Act.
2. If there is a park sale and a 'new use' is approved and it is not another mobile home park but another approved use (Tumwater has 10 allowable other uses), then the person who owns the home (if they cannot move it), is going to be paid ONLY 50% of the prior years 'assessed' value of their home. So those same seniors who sunk their entire savings into a $200,000 manuf park home will not get fair market value, but only half the value of prior years 'assessment'. See RCW 59.20.080 of the Landlord Tenant Act for folks who own the home but rent the space. Where can they move on that? No where. More homeless seniors. And why did the state allow the life savings they used to buy the home be stolen from them like this? And then the park owner can sell off their homes sitting there.
Wednesday, March 25 Report this
BobJacobs
About 30 years ago the Olympia City Council rezoned a mobile home park along Martin Way such that the land could not be used for anything else.
I have been told that a subsequent owner moved all the tenants out and kept the land undeveloped. To force the city's hand. So there appears to be a way to circumvent such approaches. Expensive, but effective.
There are limits to what can be accomplished by laws in some cases. Like the lobbyist houses in the South Capitol neighborhood. No way has been found to protect the neighborhood.
Bob Jacobs
Wednesday, March 25 Report this