Dozens of eastern Iowa families may not be able to pay their rent in the coming months. In what's become a national trend, companies are buying up mobile home parks and drastically increasing monthly lot fees.

The new proposal by Iowa Democratic Senators Zach Wahls and Kevin Kinney could potentially ensure people are given more info and time, before price hikes for lot rents go into effect.

"There's some angry people but there are some really scared seniors and low-income folks," said Matt Chapman.

Chapman lives at Midwest Country Estates in Waukee but he may not for much longer. Havenpark Capitol is raising his lot rent by about 69 percent.

"If they wanted to do this, it could've been done gradually," said Chapman. "It could've been done with the dignity to get them to move to another home instead of basically saying put up the money or get out."

Last week, Chapman came to Des Moines with Senators Zach Wahls and Kevin Kinney, as well as residents from North Liberty, West Branch, and Iowa City mobile home parks. The Utah-based company bought up each of their properties and are jacking up prices. It may be too late for some of them but the two are pushing for a bill to change the future of other mobile home tenants.

"We're trying to help individuals who are elderly, disabled, veterans and other people there," said Kinney.

Part of the proposal is to give tenants "the right of first refusal" instead of just letting an out-of-state buyer come in and purchase their property.

That way, neighbors can possibly team up and buy the land themselves, together. It would also increase the 60-day advising period of hiking prices to at least 100 days.

"We're not saying you can't raise the rent, costs are going up but you have to give folks time to prepare for that increase if it's going to be going down the pipeline," said Wahls.

Lawmakers expect the bill to receive bi-partisan support.

"It's not a Republican/Democrat thing," said Kinney. "We have just got to make sure we're not exploiting some of our most vulnerable people."

Kinney expects this year's session will be done by next Saturday but he still has hopes of getting the bill through. He said, if not, it's something they'll definitely have to come back to in the future.

TV-9 also reached out to Havenpark Capital about this proposal but did not immediately hear back.