Bob Freeman: Defender of Rednecks

State Rep. Bob Freeman's bill to protect trailer park tenants sailed through the state house on March 8 with a 190-7 vote. On October 16, it was passed unanimously by the State Senate. Now all that's needed before it becomes state law is Governor Corbett's signature. 

Freeman introduced this bill after the Barbosa Trailer Park, located in Bethlehem Township, was sold to developer Lou Pektor for condos, without giving tenants enough time to find alternative housing. The project was never developed. 

Freeman's bill requires manufactured home community owners, when closing the community, to:

(1) inform residents within 60 days of any decision to close the community;·        
(2) inform the Pennsylvania Housing Finance Agency and the home municipality also within 60 days;·        (3) give residents at least six months to leave the community when the closure notice is made -- under current law they only have 30 days;

·     (4) consider any offer to purchase the community by a resident association representing at least 25 percent of the manufactured home spaces;

(5) pay relocation expenses of up to $4,000 for single and $6,000 for multi-section manufactured homes;·        (6) pay at least $2,500 or the home's appraised value, whichever is greater, when the homeowner is unable or unwilling to relocate the home; and·        
(7) allow tenants to terminate any leases without penalty after receiving the community's closure notice.