 |
| A chain of mobile home communities is banning window air conditioning units like this one. The policy is a danger to elderly and ill people living in these units. |
Which brings us to a mobile home community in South Bend, Indiana.
As television station WNDU reports, the Countryside Village mobile home park does not allow window air conditioning units.
Many of Countryside Village's residents are elderly. Older people are especially vulnerable to the effects of hot weather .
WNDU interviewed a gentleman named Charles Hicks, a disabled veteran who lives in the mobile home park.
He was ordered by the mobile home park owners to remove his window air conditioner. The heat immediately built up his his home, and he found himself struggling to breathe.
The television station interviewed Hicks on June 29, when the high temperature in South Bend reached 91 degrees. That day, he said, "By the end of the week, am I still going to be here? Or will I be in the hospital? Fighting for my life?"
The next day, a day with a high 92 degrees, Hicks was in the hospital, overcome by the heat.
As in many mobile home parks, most residents own the home, but the land the homes sit on is owned by Countryside Village.
But this is much bigger than one mobile part in Indiana.
Countryside Village is owned by Yes Communities, one of the largest manufactured home parks in the United States, with roughly 270 parks and 77,000 home sites, notes pestakeholder.org.
All the Yes Communities ban window air conditioners. Residents can install central air conditioners, but that's much more expensive than most residents can afford. They can also purchase portable air conditioners, but those are ineffective and don't readily disperse the heat from mobile homes.
The Yes Communities policy has drawn complaints from around the country, notes pestakeholder. org. At Five Seasons in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, one resident worried about her husband, "If he gets too hot, he could go into seizures, and it can really harm him."
In Denton, Texas, a resident at a Yes Communities mobile home park said of the window air conditioner ban: "I'm on disability, I've got multiple sclerosis and diabetes, so I can't regulate my body temperature as well as everyone else, and my living room is 103 degrees right now."
These quotes have come from news stories over the past three years. So this isn't a new issue. As noted, many residents of these mobile home communities are older.
According to Harvard Medicine:
"Studies show that it can be hard for even healthy older adults to tell when it's too hot or if they're dehydrated. Cognitive decline exacerbates these problems. Older bodies also hold more heat than younger ones when the temperature climbs. Glands don't release as much sweat. The heart doesn't circulate blood as well, so less heat is released from vessels in the skin. Systems from the cardiovascular to the immune struggle to compensate."
I'm not sure why Yes Communities officials seem not to care about their residents' health. They have not responded to inquiries from news agencies about the air conditioner issue.
It's not as if nobody tried to help these residents. Indiana State Senator David Niezgodski introduced a resolution in the summer session to get lawmakers would take a good look at the issue. Nothing happened. Legislators said there were too many other things to deal with in the brief session.
Niezgodski said he would try again next year to prevent landlords from banning window air conditioners.
"South Bend Common Councilwoman Sheila Niezgodski, who is married to Sen. Neizgodski, also weighed in.
"What message are you sending to our seniors here? Sorry, you just have to languish. You just have to suffer through the heat. When we know that they're one of the most vulnerable populations that are susceptible to heat strokes. I'm really just having a hard time understanding the reasoning behind a policy that is so harmful," she said.
Other states are also taking action. After a deadly 2021 heat wave, Oregon enacted a law that prohibits landlords from banning portable air conditioners. That includes window units.
Even so, there are loopholes. A landlord can still ban windows air conditioners if they violate state or federal building codes. Some landlords are using that loophole to stop these air conditioners.
Washington State also passed a law similar to Oregon's. That came over the objections of landlord lobbying groups.
As for the mobile homes parks owned by Yes Communities, there might or might not be a sign relief. A private equity company called Brookfield is in the process of acquiring Yes Communities. I don't entirely trust private equities, but maybe they will rescind the air conditioner ban? One can only hope.
No comments:
Post a Comment