"I don't know where in Maine you can own your own home for that kind of money, and not worry about a landowner kicking you out or raising your rent," Schwebler said. Schwebler said Maine currently has 10 resident-owned communities, where rents for those lots range from $290 to $460 a month. Advocates of the new law say it's intended to preserve an important part of Maine's affordable housing stock. Maine has more than 700 manufactured and mobile home parks. They have stability of the land, and they take pride in that land." "We have people who have stability of their income. "We don't have people who are worrying, 'What's going to happen to me tomorrow?'" she said. Jones said the residents of Mountainside, all over the age of 55, now have autonomy over their own homes and their financial security. Our communities tend to be filled with the elderly people on Social Security, single-parent households." And with no real rent control being here in Maine, outside of Portland, they can come in and do what they will. "Of course some Mainers are investing as well, but we're seeing an awful lot of out-of-state entities as well. "People are putting their properties up for sale," she said. Pat Schwebler, co-director of the New England Resident Owned Communities program for the Cooperative Development Institute, said she has seen an increase in the number of manufactured home communities changing hands. Work is underway to relocate the University of New Englands College of Osteopathic Medicine (UNE COM), Maines only medical school, from its original home. "Our community is located is down the street from Megunticook Lake and up the street from the Atlantic Ocean," Jones said. But not all communities have had the same chance. Mountainside purchased its land four years ago, when its former owner announced plans to retire and presented residents with the idea of collectively buying the property. Margaret Jones, board president for the Mountainside Community Cooperative in Camden, advocated for the law in the Legislature earlier this year.
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