Mobile Home Residents Hit with Soaring Rent After Hurricanes

"LUMBERTON, N.C. (AP) — For eight years, James Lesane paid what he could for his mobile home lot rental every month — $150. But in February, five months after Hurricane Florence flooded the Lumberton region and shortly after Florida-based company Time Out Communities bought the park, his monthly lot rent more than tripled to $465.

With a fixed Social Security disability income of about $791 a month, Lesane said it's impossible for him to pay that.

"If I had to pay $465 I couldn't even pay the lights in this place," he said, gesturing to the dim lighting inside his trailer, where trash bags covered windows to keep the trailer cool on a sweltering 100-degree day.

Time Out owns 23 properties in low-income Robeson County, many of which were bought in the past two years. At the same time, the county was one of the hardest-hit areas during hurricanes Matthew in 2016 and Florence in 2018..."

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