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What could you do to increase affordable housing locally?

Poder Casas Móviles (Mobile Home Power) is a group of mobile home park residents and our allies fighting for our rights to fair, healthy and affordable housing.

Poder Casas Móviles give free housing and eviction legal advice, organizes Know Your Rights trainings for mobile home and manufactured home residents, gives emergency housing and utility grants for mobile home park residents behind on rent payments (when funding is available), and organizes to change policies that impact the lives of mobile home and manufactured housing residents.

We are currently conducting a survey of mobile home park / manufactured housing community residents in Southern Arizona so we can best tailor our Know Your Rights workshops and our advocacy work.

Mobile Home Park and Manufactured Housing Community Residents in AZ: Fill out the survey here!

Our Mission

Our mission is to educate the mobile home community about our housing rights so we can defend ourselves and protect our homes against:

  • The unfair increase in rent.
  • The abuses of utility overcharging.
  • Unjust eviction.
  • Other forms of exploitation by mobile home park owners.

Our Vision

Our vision is to achieve resilient communities and safe housing by:

  • Ensuring that families are informed and empowered in their housing rights.
  • Strengthening and uniting the voice of mobile home park residents to advocate for changes of housing laws.
  • Connecting mobile home park residents with resources and technical assistance to buy their parks and form communities owned by the residents.

Our Work

  • Know Your Rights workshops, which we present with housing lawyers.
  • Talking to mobile home residents to understand the problems we are facing and to make action plans to change our situations.
  • Sharing information about resources for those who live in mobile homes.
  • Organizing political campaigns to change laws to better protect the rights of mobile home residents.
  • Supporting families in fighting eviction.
Photo: Supporting a member of Poder Casas Móviles in painting her house to prevent eviction.

Campaign for Utility Justice

Image of the backs of people's heads sitting in chairs, with one man standing and speaking.
Photo: Residents share their experiences of utility overcharging in mobile home parks and manufactured housing communities while staff and electeds from the Residential Utility Consumer Office ("RUCO"), Wildfire, the Tucson City Council, Pima County, and Tucson Electric Power listen and respond.

In a survey of 100 mobile home park residents in Tucson, the most commonly cited problem was problems with overcharging for utilities, followed by problems with reliability of utility service and rent increases.

The majority of those experiencing problems with both utility cost and service have a master meter for the park, which is then submetered to each home with a park owned meter. The customer with the utility in these cases is technically the mobile home park. These customers do not have the same rights as direct customers of the utility, are afforded fewer protections, and have less access to utility sponsored resources. 

Poder Casas Móviles is working to accomplish the following:

  • For utility companies in Arizona to expand access to low-income discounts, utility rebates, and emergency assistance programs to customers on a master meter. We seek for these customers to have equitable treatment as direct utility customers. In many cases residents would benefit the most from simply becoming direct utility customers and we are currently working with local stakeholders to explore possibilities for these transitions.
  • Increased accountability for charges in master meter parks. Currently if someone in a mobile home or manufactured housing community has a high utility bill and they believe there was an issue with their billing, meter, or meter reading, their only legal recourse is to take their landlord to court. We are seeking an easier accountability process where these customers could call and receive assistance as easily and equitably as if they were a direct customer.
  • Increased investment in weatherization. Some high utility costs are related to historically weak energy standards in mobile homes and manufactured housing. Of the more than 50,000 units of manufactured housing in Pima County, 35% are pre-1976 mobile homes, built before HUD standards were put in place. These older homes are often poorly insulated and have much higher cost to heat and cool per square foot than new manufactured homes or most site built homes.This inefficiency in heating and cooling has costs far beyond high utility bills. MH residents in Arizona are 8 times more likely to die from heat-related causes than those in site built homes. In 2023, 40% of indoor heat related deaths occurred within MH and RVs.Poder Casas Móviles is partnering with the City of Tucson and Pima County to do outreach for residential rehabilitation services administered by the City of Tucson and Pima County. We are so excited that this region has received federal funds to dedicate specifically to repairing (and in some cases replacing) manufactured homes in Pima County. The announcement for funding was just announced in December 2024 so the program is not yet up and running; we will have more information on our website and social media when it has launched!

For more information, write to us at podercasasmoviles@gmail.com or call (520)525-5110

Contact Us / Contáctenos

Send us a message or join our mailing list by entering your information here. We will get back to you as soon as possible. If you have received an eviction notice and need immediate assistance, please contact Pima County EELS at 520-724-3357.

Envíenos un mensaje o únase a nuestra lista de correo ingresando su información aquí. Nos comunicaremos con usted lo antes posible. Si recibió un aviso de desalojo y necesita asistencia inmediata, comuníquese con Pima County EELS al 520-724-3357.

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Website creation supported with funding from the City of Tucson Housing and Community Development Department and Tucson Pima Collaboration to End Homelessness.

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