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DES MOINES, Iowa — Mobile home owners from across the state descended on the capital to plead with lawmakers for new legal protections.

Residents described sharp increases in rent and utility costs, some paying more than double their original amounts. All of them say if prices continue to go up they will be priced out of their homes.

“It infuriates me on a personal level because these are my neighbors. We are average everyday, hard-working people just trying to get by and have a life,” said Angela Smith-Stoltz who lives at Park Plaza Mobile Home Park in Muscatine.

Currently, there is no Iowa law that specifically protects mobile home owners, leaving residents vulnerable to third parties who buy the land and then drive up costs.

Carrie Presley, a resident from Table Mound Trailer Park says residents are stuck because moving these homes would cost several thousand dollars.

“This is something that needs to come to the public’s attention. We have less protections than somebody that lives in an apartment,we could lose our homes at any time, this is our total investment,” said vice president of Golfview Mobile Home Park Residents Association Candi Evans.

House file 2351 was tabled this morning, but if passed it would have created similar protections for mobile home owners that already exist under Iowa’s Residential Landlord and Tenant Law. Co-sponsor for the bill, Republican Representative Steven Holt, says the decision to table the bill comes from the skepticism of the price control aspects of the bill.

Holt said in a phone interview that he wants to find a way to control the drastic increases in rent, but wants to make sure to approach it from all angles.

“Those are not the things I have problems with, it’s more of the price control element that folks are very concerned about. We are going to have to figure out a way that we can address this issue but be respectful to both sides,” said Holt.