For the Jan. 20 issue.
Mobile home owners want answers
To the editor:
Back in September 2004, tenants from mobile home parks in North Hanover Township approached the committee about passing an ordinance for lot rent control in mobile home parks. We first got petitions and started an organization and did everything the committee asked of us. And to date this township is still lingering and now wants to start another subcommittee.
They have tried everything already hoping that we would just drop the issue. Well, North Hanover, some of is might have beards that reach our feet, but we will keep fighting. This time around, we are not going to be told "No," like the Democrats did 23 years ago when they were approached for lot rent control. We will get to the truth.
Some attention is going to be given to mobile home owners living in a park. What is this township up to? And why do we get the impression that they are protecting park owners?
Wagon Wheel Estates has the highest lot rent in North Hanover, yet this township is declared low-income by the State. A single mobile home owner is now paying $410 and a double-wide mobile home owner has to pay $425.
An individual on Social Security disability is giving up one half of his monthly check just to rent, and a retired Military is giving up one-third of his pension check just to have his mobile home sit on someone else’s property. Is this fair when we have home insurance, gas, electric, cable, phone, fuel, auto insurance, medical insurance, not to mention the maintenance of our homes and yards, food and all the other necessities of a household?
And yes, park owners are making out like bandits as their responsibilities are water, sewer, and taxes. Of which this township receives taxes and paid fees yet cannot find it within their conscience to pass an ordinance for rent control. But we have no intentions of giving up, we will go as far as we have to.
The same way we are waiting to see a referendum pass against abusive landlords as promised by then Mobile Home Park Commissioner, Mr. Michael Moscatiello. Also, we are still waiting for the Mobile Home Park Inspector and Electrical Inspector to check electrical poles in the park that are in dire need of service. I guess they are still walking and looking for Wagon Wheel Estates. Then this committee asks why we are unhappy tenants? Because we get tired of complaining and then keep on being lied to by this township.
And the same goes for the previous Democratic committee. They would pass an ordinance and never enforce them. Hire an inspector that we have yet to see his face in this park. This park is not a nice park because of the owner or the township. We as tenants do what we have to do in order that our park not take the appearance of a waste facility.
So, committee members of North Hanover start doing the job that you were elected to do, ’cause election time will be here sooner than you think.
Kenneth Reilly
Wrightstown
Tenants feel rent control was put on ‘side burner’
To the editor:
Twelve years ago tenants from mobile home parks in North Hanover Township went to the Democratic Committee back then and asked that the committee pass an ordinance for lot rent control in mobile home parks. A subcommittee was formed which included one mobile home park owner and a tenant from each park. However, when this committee was formed, an opinion and representative from Wagon Wheel Estate Mobile Home Park which has 41 mobile home owners was completely left out of voicing our opinions.
Yet the Mobile Home Park Commissioner, Michael Moscatiello, remarked that 12 years that same committee did a great job. How great a job was really done when an entire park was left out?
In September 2004, tenants from Wagon Wheel approached Mr. Moscatiello again about lot rent control. And although new on the job as a newly appointed committeeman, Mr. Moscatiello told a couple of tenants that what we had to do was first get a petition with approximately 250-300 tenants’ signatures before the state would even look at rent control.
Well, being that this was out first time at seeking rent control, we started getting signatures from the different parks. Then, Mr. Moscatiello said what we needed was to start an organization. Which of course we did again, bit this time around I seeked the advice of New Jersey Tenants Organization and a lawyer to see if we were headed in the right direction.
We then had a meeting of tenants from different parks and a representative from the NJ Tenants Organization to help us better understand rent control. Well, we sure found out that first of all, the state had nothing to do with rent control and it was up to our own township officials to get an ordinance started.
Also, we found out that there are presently 120 ordinances in the state of New Jersey that have rent control in mobile home parks. But North Hanover is not one of these municipalities, and all we get is postponements and more subcommittees started, and yet North Hanover is listed by the state of New Jersey as a "low income area."
Well, the tenants in mobile home parks are getting tired of attending township meetings with no accomplishments ahead. Several tenants have very serious questions regarding this issue and are now questioning the reason why North Hanover keeps on giving a "run around" excuse to mobile home owners.
This does not mean that for a minute we plan to stop fighting, as a matter of fact we will get stronger and demand more answers from this committee until we have rent control ordinance.
And although Mr. Moscatiello is no longer Mobile Home Park Commissioner, we will succeed and get to the bottom of this issue. For too long mobile home parks have been ignored. Ordinances are passed by this township and never enforced. People living in mobile home parks are not ignorant as some may like to think. As a matter of fact, if committee members would listen and learn from people living in mobile home parks maybe committee members would get a wake up call and become more knowledgeable as to what is really going on their townships.
Our lot rent goes to pay for the taxes in our park, and our pad fees go directly to the township. So we are no different than a homeowner paying property taxes, the only difference is our homes lay on someone else’s property. So wise up North Hanover, we are in for one fighting new year in 2005.
President, North Hanover
Mobile Home Tenants Org.

