• Home
  • News
    • Politics & Government
    • Business & Economy
    • Crime / Courts
    • Health / Medicine
  • Sports
    • High School Sports
    • Radio Iowa Poll
  • Affiliates
    • Affiliate Support Page
  • Contact Us
    • Reporters

Radio Iowa

Iowa's Radio News Network

You are here: Home / Mobile home bill fails to pass in the Senate

Mobile home bill fails to pass in the Senate

March 31, 2011 By Matt Kelley

Two Democrats joined minority Republicans in the Iowa Senate Wednesday to defeat what advocates call the Mobile Home Park Tenants Bill of Rights. Burlington Democrat Tom Courtney argues, under current law, trailer park tenants can be evicted without good cause.

“Sometimes (the tenant) does something wrong and the park manager decides to move them out with no warning. Any rights tenants have are meaningless because there’s no way to enforce those rights,” Courtney said. Courtney says while most parks are well-run, a small percentage of bad actors are abusing tenants. But, Senator Randy Feenstra – a Republican from Hull – says the bill is unfair to the good guys.

“The way the bill is currently structured, it creates an extreme one-sided situation. I don’t want to play favorites,” Feenstra said. Courtney argues mobile home park tenants lack the basic rights of apartment dwellers. “We’re dealing with almost homeless people, the poorest of the poor. If we don’t have ‘good cause’ in there, these could be homeless tomorrow because of an unscrupulous landlord,” Courtney said.

Mobile home managers lobbied hard against the bill. Feenstra says the vast majority are doing a good job. “One percent of the people are causing the problem. So, it seems like we (the legislature) always quickly jump in and say ‘we’re going to fix that one percent.’ The minute you do that, you affect the rest of the 99 percent,” Feenstra said. The bill was rejected on a 23-25 vote. Two Democrats joined minority Republicans in voting against the bill.

Share this:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter

Filed Under: Uncategorized Tagged With: Democratic Party, Legislature, Republican Party

Featured Stories

Testing finds 21 new CWD cases in deer

It may become a crime in Iowa to use fake urine in workplace drug tests

February trending 18 degrees below average temperature

Iowa House Education Committee votes to end tenure at UI, ISU, UNI

Man convicted of two Muscatine County murders dies in prison

TwitterFacebook
Tweets by RadioIowa

Key stretch begins for #9 Iowa

Drake’s Roman Penn lost for the season

Drake’s DeVries named to Naismith watch list

State wrestling opens with limited attendance

Iowa’s Wieskamp is B1G Player of the Week

More Sports

eNews and Updates

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

Archives

Copyright © 2021 ยท Learfield News & Ag, LLC