Manufactured Insecurity: Mobile Home Parks and Americans’ Tenuous Right to Place

I don’t remember the last time a work of research was so enjoyable a read! I never spent time thinking about the residents of mobile home parks and just how much they are at the whims of the park owners, but my heart ached reading about the people in this book and their experiences. It is impossible not to feel the frustration of their impotence. The perspective of all sides of the issue is fairly portrayed, from those that have grown up owning mobile parks to the people that view parks as pure profit. The compassion behind the research is clear, and the amount of time that must have gone into compiling the data for an as yet un-researched area of American life is mind boggling. I would highly recommend this book.

Dr. Sullivan contrasts the eviction of residents and closing of mobile home parks in Florida and Texas. This academic treatise cloaks an ethnographic analysis of the issues behind a portrayal of the experiences of those actually living through the process. The results are heartbreaking for those displaced from their homes but "simply business" for the industry. The book also provides an interesting comparison between a state that claims to provide support under these circumstances with one that does not.

I’m about halfway through book. It’s taking me longer than I thought it would and I’m an avid reader. There are tons of statistics which after a bit could give you a headache. I do appreciate the stories and comments from the people befriended by the authorIf you’re thinking you can binge read this book you might walk away a jumbled head and pounding headache. I’m having to read and when my head starts to hurt. But I will say if you live ina manufactured home and rent your land this will make you stop and think

This is an incredible sociological analysis of an issue many don't even know exists - evictions from mobile home parks which are one of the most important sources of affordable housing in the U.S. I learned so much, about mobile home parks but also about the state of affordable housing and the impacts of housing insecurity in the U.S. For an academic book, it was also beautifully written and filled with evocative stories from inside these communities.

What I liked was the author's concern for our nation's low income citizenry and her desire to improve their housing situation. Also liked her willingness to experience near poverty lifestyle firsthand by living in a land lease community - and attending the infamous Mobile Home University. What I did not like, however, was her apparent unwillingness to understand that some, if not many, people - via their decision-making, opt to live the way they do despite having alternatives. Land lease community ownership is a business, not a social service. And while, for some, living in 'trailer parks' is simply one step away from homelessness.

Sullivan's thesis is that when mobile home parks are sold to developers, tenants get hosed. When tenants get hosed, they suffer. This is argued in a style that switches between personal anecdotes from her fieldwork and academic jargon ("Socio-Spatial Stigma and Trailer Trash"; "the _emplacement_ of place", e.g.) that gives you, after a hundred pages or so, whiplash. She makes one interesting point, i.e. that state regulations intended to help mobile home park tenants in this situation sometimes contribute to conditions that make the process more traumatic than it is in purely laissez-faire states - not a conclusion I would expect myself, and kudos to her for following the data, rather than her prejudices. But if you have gotten this far in this review, you need not buy the book. When parks are closed, tenants suffer. You know that already. Go read something more enlightening.