Carol DeAngelis first learned Aug. 7 that her mobile home park near Asheville had been purchased by COARE Communities. A day later, she attended a meeting held at the mobile home park, where a representative from COARE told her that her lot rent would rise from $350 to $850, an account confirmed by two other tenants who attended the meeting.
DeAngelis, who owns her mobile home but pays rent for the property it stands on, was shocked.
"It's going to be pretty difficult to live," she told the Citizen Times Aug. 12, adding that she is undergoing treatment for cancer. The new lot rent would take "a good half" of her check for the month.
"Plus, there's no guarantee it won't keep going up," she said.
The new property owner is Wedgefield MHP LLC, a limited
liability company operated by COARE, which owns more than a dozen similar companies across North Carolina, according to business records kept by the N.C. Secretary of State.
A bigger problem
Investment companies acquiring mobile home parks and raising the lot rent is not just a local phenomenon — It's happening nationwide. Madeline Bankson, senior housing research and campaign coordinator for the Private Equity Stakeholder Project, a nonprofit advocacy organization that researches and tracks the impacts of private equity on communities, workers and the general public, told the Citizen Times on Aug. 20 that mobile home parks are especially vulnerable to predatory tactics used by some private equity companies.
"The entire investor business model is trying to generate as much revenue as quickly as possible," said Bankson, who uses they/them pronouns. "It's like having a waffle house where the customers are chained to the booths. (Mobile home owners) just can't leave."
Bankson said that the company likely knows that many tenants can't afford such a dramatic increase in lot rent.
"That's the worst I've maybe ever heard," they said.
"We hear these stories of folks who are having brown water that's coming out, having water shut off for long periods of time, living with no power," Bankson said. "I think it's pretty safe to say that the actual business model is to undermaintain the properties while also jacking up the rent. It's just kind of a lose, lose lose for everybody except for the very rich people who run these firms."
Other purchases
COARE Communities, which bought Wedgefield Mobile Home Park earlier this month, has recently purchased at least two other Asheville-area properties, according to property records.
The company bought a mobile home park at 29 Lupine Loop, Asheville in April, and another mobile home park in December 2025, which is at 1075 Sweeten Creek Road, Asheville.
Altogether, the company has spent more than $13 million in the Asheville area in less than a year, property records indicate.
COARE is a subsidiary of COARE Companies, a private equity backed entity focused on "establishing platforms across niche investment strategies," according to the conglomerate's website. COARE Communities touts itself as "focused on solving the challenges of affordable housing" by acquiring and preserving manufactured housing communities.
Jackie Goris, the district manager for COARE Communities, said in a phone call with the Citizen Times that she is not allowed to speak with reporters. She declined to comment further. Hansel Rodriguez, the chief executive officer of COARE, did not respond to emails and calls from the Citizen Times.
A vulnerable population
Kathryn Bass, 82, has lived in her mobile home at Wedgefield for 22 years. She is retired, living on a fixed income, and like DeAngelis, has cancer. She said one person told her that her mobile home wasn't included in the purchase. Since then, she has received notices directing her to an online portal where she is supposed to pay lot rent.
She also attended the town hall and was told that lot rent would be raised to $850.
"I just felt sick. I thought, 'I'm going to be homeless,'" she said.
She said that with that increase in lot rent, she would likely have to move out of her mobile home and into a camper, perhaps on a relative's property. She would also have to put her stepfather, who lives with her and has suffered a stroke, into a nursing home.
"You think you got your home paid for and you think you have somewhere to live, but then this happens in like a day," she said. "I thought I was safe."
In addition to not having the money, she doesn't own a computer and has never used an online portal to pay rent.
"I don't even know how to pay my rent," she said.
Chris Harmon, 57, has lived at Wedgefield for 23 years. He said that when COARE took over, someone handed out flyers that were mostly in Spanish to residents.
"My retired girlfriend was home, she's like, 'Do you have something in English?' They said no, turned around and walked off and refused to give her one," he said. "We're just kind of at a loss. We weren't given any information about this until those people walked around with flyers."
"It just seems pretty outrageous for some group to just come in and go, we don't care anything about you. This is what's going to happen. They have no knowledge of anybody in here," he added.
A fight in Burke County
The situation at Wedgefield mirrors what happened recently at Idlewild Acres, a mobile home park in Burke County that was purchased in 2022 by a different company, Manufactured Housing Properties, Inc., which is closely affiliated with Charlotte-based real estate investment firm Gvest Capital and shares the same organizational leadership.
Julia Hughes, a resident at Idlewild, told the Citizen Times on Aug. 20 that she received a letter in January stating that her lot rent was going up $100. She fought it, then received a letter in May saying her lot rent was going up $200. In addition, Hughes said mobile homes in the park are deteriorating, with little maintenance being done by the company, and some people in the park who have purchased their mobile homes have not received a title for it.
"I myself at times have had to catch rainwater to flush my toilet to keep my water bill from going up," she said. "It's getting to the point of do I eat or pay my rent. We're having to sacrifice our own needs for their financial gain."
Hughes has been working with the North Carolina Tenants Union to fight the increases, and residents at Idlewild helped organizea petition. They also went to Gvest's corporate office in Charlotte to try to meet with representatives from the company. When reached by the Citizen Times on Aug. 21, Susan B. Rosenblatt, director of Land Development for Gvest, declined to comment on Hughes' allegations.
But in an email to the North Carolina Tenants Union sent July 15, Rosenblatt said that the rent increase will stand.
Rosenblatt also said that the company has filled more than 200 work orders since taking over the mobile home park, and that before receiving a letter from tenants, Gvest's sales team had already begun contacting buyers to confirm how they would prefer to receive their titles.
"Thank you for bringing the residents’ concerns to our attention. We will continue to review and respond to individual maintenance, title, and property-related matters through the appropriate channels," Rosenblatt wrote.
Back to work
At Wedgefield, DeAngelis, who is retired and will turn 68 in November, said she still has not received anything in writing from COARE that announces the increased lot rent. The payment portal online is asking for $350 for the month of September. She said that she has reached out to multiple company officials and has received few responses.
"We're kind of in limbo. From the night that we had the meeting until now, nothing in writing at all. You would think they would have drawn something up at that point or immediately after and put it in our mailboxes, but nope, nothing," she said.
She said that she reached out to the N.C. Tenants Union but has not yet received a response.
"I'm trying to see what some of the other parks have done. It's time consuming," she said. " I'm not going to just sit back. I've got to figure out what I can do legally, and then if I can't, I guess I've gotta take whatever money I have and pay it, and it's going to come out of something else."
She said that she may have to find a new job if the lot rent increases, despite her treatments for cancer. She previously worked at Ingles, and has a background in office work.
"I guess I'm just going to have to work until I die," she said.
Kara Fohner is the Public Safety Reporter for the Asheville Citizen Times. Email her at kfohner@usatodayco.com or call her at 980-241-8671.
This article originally appeared on Asheville Citizen Times: Private equity firm hikes rent for lots at Asheville trailer park
