Yes! Communities cited for health violations from wastewater lagoon
February 24, 2026
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. The company is currently owned by Stockbridge Capital Partners, the Pennsylvania Public Schools Employees Retirement System (PA PSERS), and GIC, the sovereign wealth fund of Singapore.
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 COVID national eviction moratorium.
The private equity firm Brookfield is in talks to acquire Yes Communities, according to the Financial Times. Will Brookfield address the problems that residents are facing or will the company make conditions worse?
In January, a local paper reported that in December, a city administrator sent a citation letter to Yes Communities for health violations at the Byrnes Mill Farms manufactured home park in Missouri. Residents had complained to the city about the smell from a wastewater lagoon in the community, saying that one of the lagoon’s aerators, which produces oxygen to reduce odor and pollution in wastewater, had not been working for months.
The city gave YES Communities until Jan. 2 to resolve the problem, and then on January 12 notified the company that all permits, including for occupancy, would be suspended because YES had not resolved the issue.
On January 14, the city said that YES had purchased two new aerators for the lagoon, but the delivery could take four to six weeks.
Upset residents addressed a city Board of Alderpersons meeting in January. One resident, who is also a captain with a local police department, said the problem is “continuous” and was so severe on Christmas Eve, “when we went out for midnight Mass, it actually burned our eyes.” He also said about YES Communities, “They know what the problem is, they know what the fix needs to be, and it’s not being done.”
The lagoon is a private wastewater system owned and operated by YES Communities. In 2022, the state Department of Natural Resources had previously issued Yes an abatement order because the Department anticpated that YES would be in violation of the Missouri Clean Water Law due upon its acquisition of the wastewater system due to excessive levels of E. coli and Ammonia as Nitrogen in the lagoon.
PESP, MHAction, and residents of Yes Communities across four states sent a letter to Brookfield urging the private equity company to meet with residents and commit to a basic set of standards and resident protections if Brookfield purchases Yes.
