Saugus Town Meeting member fights for mobile home park rent control

SAUGUS – Residents of a mobile home park in Saugus are trying to keep their rents low as talk of a casino at nearby Suffolk Downs continues.Wayne Brooks, a Town Meeting member and president of the Saugus Mobile Home Park Association, submitted an article for Town Meeting last week to enact rent control for the park.Brooks stressed that the article is “not punitive against park owners,” but will help protect against rising rent if the park is ever sold.?This is a hedge against us taking a beating if the park ever gets sold,” said Brooks. “With the possibility of casinos coming in, I think this land is going to be worth a lot of money. If they sell this property ? it could put these people in a bind ? A new owner would only be required to keep it as a park for four years, and they might try to raise the rent very high to kick everybody out. All this would do is protect the people.”Brooks said rent at the park is currently $414 per month, which includes trash pickup, snow plowing, taxes and water.?Everything is wrapped up in that,” he said. “People say this is going to cost the town money, but we pay an excise tax on every home in here every month. The town brings in about $8,000 a year from these parks and we?ve never had any benefit from that.”Brooks said mobile home parks are the only homes that are allowed to have rent control, and the current article would only be for mobile homes. Brooks said the park has 70 units, while another mobile home park, which is next to Polcari?s on Route 1, has about 15 units.Brooks also noted a similar article came up for Town Meeting in 2009 but was never voted on.In a letter to selectmen, Brooks said the committee never recorded, approved or filed minutes with the Town Clerk and only held three meetings.?It was brought up before and (it was) referred to a committee, and the committee did a very poor job,” said Brooks. “They didn?t even act like a committee. This is why I?m asking it be brought up again.”Matt Tempesta can be reached at [email protected].