Advocates, residents urge Brookfield to adopt tenant protections ahead of potential manufactured housing acquisition

Today, 24 residents of Yes! Communities across four states and advocacy groups MHAction and the Private Equity Stakeholder Project published an open letter to Brookfield Asset Management urging the private equity firm to commit to a basic set of standards and resident protections should Brookfield purchase manufactured housing operator Yes! Communities. 

The letter comes after the Financial Times reported that Brookfield was in talks to acquire Yes! Communities from Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund. Since the early 2000s, institutional investors such as private equity firms have increased their presence in the manufactured housing market. In 2020 and 2021, they accounted for 23% of all manufactured home purchases, up from 13% between 2017 and 2019. 

The business model employed by private equity investors in manufactured housing buyouts typically involves buying a park, increasing the rent to increase cash flow at the property, and then often selling it within a few years for a profit. Across the country, residents at corporate-owned communities have reported rent increases of as much as 100% after private equity-owned landlords took over their parks as well as egregious maintenance issues. In multiple corporate-owned manufactured housing communities, residents endure frequent water shutoffs and in at least one case, have had to pay for undrinkable water. 

Yes! Communities is one of the largest owners of manufactured housing in the U.S., with 266 parks in its portfolio comprising over 77,000 home sites. Residents of manufactured housing communities operated by Yes! Communities have reported exorbitant rent hikes, excessive fees, poor maintenance practices, and filing to evict a tenant during the national eviction moratorium.

In their letter to Brookfield, the advocates and residents requested a meeting with the firm and asked that Brookfield commit to standards including: 

• Capping home and lot rent increases at 3% per year
• Pledging not to impose any new fees or increase any existing fees
• Cooperating with residents who wish to collectively purchase their parks
• Committing not to retaliate against residents who file complaints, speak to the media, or organize with other residents  
• Providing long-term residents who are senior citizens with multi-year leases if they choose 
• Allowing residents to have window A/C units

“I could become homeless depending on rent and fee increases,” said Yes! Communities resident Sonia Wallace. “We urge Brookfield to meet with tenants and address our concerns before they purchase our parks.”

Notably, the letter’s signatories included 18 Michiganders, including 13 residents of Yes! Communities’ Avon on the Lake park. More than a quarter of Yes! Communities’ parks are in Michigan, and there have been a number of news stories about residents there who are struggling due to Yes!’s rent increases, including a resident of Oakland Glens in Novi, Michigan, who said his rent doubled after it was bought by Yes! Communities and a 71-year-old woman at Avon on the Lake in Rochester Hills, Michigan, who was paying more than half of her monthly income for rent due to rent increases. According to July 2025 research by PESP, Michigan has a disproportionate share of private equity-owned manufactured housing: private equity firms own more than 25% of manufactured homes in Michigan.

“When a new company buys a mobile home community, we fear increased lot rent and other extra fees,” said Yes! Communities resident Mary Davis. “Unfortunately even with marginal increases for inflation, our fixed incomes cannot cover new expenses like these.”