SB190: Mobile home hotline would offer residents assistance

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SALT LAKE CITY — A bill to potentially create legal hotline for legal information about the Mobile Home Park Residency Act has been passed by the Senate and a House committee.

The hotline resulting from SB190 will be a two-year program where both residents and park hosts may call to receive adequate legal information about legal grievances involving their homes.

Andrew Riggle, a public policy analyst from the Disability Law Center, said, “Many people in this population are vulnerable when it comes to the security of their homes, so this is a really important issues and this is a great step forward for park owners and their residents.”

Riggle also asked the committee if a hotline for those with disabilities could receive legal information about fair housing. While the members of the House Political Subdivisions Committee were sympathetic to this idea, the representatives determined that the hotline would be exclusively for mobile park owners, since the hotline is a trial program created through one-time money.

Sen.Daniel Thatcher, R-West Valley, said, “It is a start, but it is the best start we have had in a really long time. It actually gives information that is not available to this part of the population, where they are sometimes filled with misunderstandings.”

The hotline is unique, because it serves both vested parties without bias, meaning that no one party is at an advantage in receiving information, and it does not give pure legal advice. The bill also requires that all park owners must post the rights of a mobile park residents next to the hotline as well as instructions as to how to utilize the hotline. The bill still has several steps before becoming a law, but if passed, it will help several Utahns who are currently without crucial information.

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