Bills target utility overcharges for mobile homes

House Bill 2459 and Senate Bill 1558 are two bills linked to energy affordability for mobile home residents seeking to prevent mobile home park landlords from charging their tenants more for their utilities than the park itself.

Typically, mobile home tenants are not the direct utility customer, which means they have fewer protections, can’t seek help from utility assistance programs and don’t have access to the bills. With an estimated over 1,000 mobile home parks, Arizona has a significant inventory of manufactured housing.

With approximately 29,300 mobile homes, Mesa is noteworthy, as it boasts the highest inventory in the country.

Kelly McGowan, Executive Director at Wildfire, joined “Arizona Horizon” to discuss their program and the upcoming bills. Wildfire is a non-profit that addresses issues of poverty in Arizona through policy change efforts.

“I think you’re seeing energy affordability just in the national conversation right now,” McGowan said, “Energy bills rose at twice the rate that inflation did. So I think that you’re really seeing people struggle with energy affordability across the nation and particularly for low-income households.”

While there is no official record or registration of mobile homes in Arizona, there are an estimated 150,000 to 300,000 units in the state. The two bills McGowan has advocated for would create greater protections for mobile home owners.

“In mobile home parks, they’re in a unique situation in that they own the manufactured home, but they’re renting the land from the landlord,” McGowan explained. “The landlords are the customer of the utility, not the mobile manufactured home owner.”

McGowan said there is a higher percentage of heat-related deaths that happen in mobile homes, as some mobile homes are not as well insulated or have some heat-related issues. House Bill 2459 would essentially give better protections for those in mobile homes.

“It basically says that landlords cannot charge their tenants more than they’re being charged by the utility,” McGowan said, “but they cannot pass on charges that the utility is not charging them.”