March 11, 2026 - Douglassville, PA
Governor Josh Shapiro visited a manufactured housing community in Berks County to call for reform to protect Pennsylvanians living in manufactured home communities from predatory practices often used by out-of-state property management companies. In his 2026 Budget Address, Governor Shapiro called on the Pennsylvania General Assembly to pass legislation limiting annual lot rent increases for manufactured housing communities. This legislation, coupled with reforms included in the Governor's 2026-27 proposed budget and Housing Action Plan, would protect manufactured homeowners and help make housing more affordable across the Commonwealth.Residents who live in manufactured housing communities own their factory-built homes, but rent the land beneath them. These homes are often one of the most affordable options for homeownership and in Pennsylvania, there are 56,000 households in manufactured home communities. However, many of these households have seen across the board increases to their monthly lot rent in recent years. Forcing Pennsylvanians to pay out-of-state companies more in rent while still being responsible for paying local school and real estate taxes - and in some cases, additional utility fees."Owning your own home is the American dream, but in recent years, we've seen greedy out-of-state corporations buy up our communities, increase costs to unaffordable levels, and take advantage of Pennsylvanians, especially our seniors," said Governor Shapiro. "I wanted to visit Douglass Village today to hear from the Pennsylvanians who are pushing back against these out-of-state companies and call for real reforms to protect tens of thousands of homeowners like them. My Housing Action Plan lays out a comprehensive plan to reduce housing costs and protect Pennsylvanians, and I'm calling on the General Assembly to take action by limiting annual lot rent increases for manufactured housing communities."List of Speakers:Christine Ziemer, a Douglass Village manufactured homeownerGovernor Josh Shapiro
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