Indiana Mobile Home Park Owners Ban Air Conditioners For Vulnerable Residents

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. 

Every one in awhile, a local news story captures my attention and enrages me. 

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. 

WNDU continues: 

"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. 

 

Aesthetics Matter More Than Safety/Staying Alive During Summer Heat Waves, Say Some Building Managers

Window air conditioners like this one on my house aren't
exactly pretty, but they can be life saving to some during
intense heat waves. Residents, lawmakers in various
parts of the nation are rebelling against landlord
issued window air conditioning bans. 

As we move into the hot months of summer,  I'm seeing a smattering of reports around the nation of apartment building managers bent on making their tenants broil in dangerous heat.  

The reason: The buildings need to look pretty, even if it means some people die of heat stroke or something. 

This involves apartment buildings or rental houses without central air. People in those cases resort to window mounted air conditions to get them through heat waves. 

In addition to aesthetics, building managers cite supposed safety issues. As if there were a sudden epidemic of air conditioners falling from windows, kind of like the constant rain of Acme-brand anvils smashing down on Wily E. Coyote.  

Examples are cropping up everywhere. In torrid San Antonio, residents of a mobile home park were told they can no longer have air conditioners in their windows.  Not sure what the residents are supposed to do when the Texas summer sun hits those tin can homes, but whatever. 

In equally hot Denton, Texas, a 600 unit mobile home park also banned window air conditioners. Central air is allowed, but many residents can't afford that. 

In South Portland, Maine, managers of an apartment building this spring abruptly told residents that window air conditioners are now banned, says television station WGME.

This particular apartment building tends to heat up big time in the summer. One resident said on a recent day when temperatures outdoors were in the low 60s, the temperature in their apartment reached 81 degrees.

Residents were told that window air conditioners are a safety and liability worry. "Why are they all of a sudden worried now, when there's never been an accident where one fell out," resident Anthony Nizza said. 

People who live in the apartment block can use portable air conditioners but they are much expensive to operate and not as effective as window units. One resident said the cost of operating a portable unit is twice that of a window air conditioner. 

Following complaints, operators of the South Portland apartment building will allow window units this summer only if brackets are installed.  Next year, no window units.

Some states and municipalities are fighting back. 

After an extreme, deadly heat wave in 2021, Oregon legislators passed a law ordering landlords to allow window air conditioners. 

Lawmakers too action after residents complained that landlords weren't allowing air conditioners as temperatures inside homes reached a dangerous 100 degrees. 

There are loopholes in the Oregon law. . Landlords could claim the air conditioners are overloading the building electrical system. Or they could be banned from historic buildings.

Same issue seems to be brewing in Spokane, Washington. There, the City Council is considering an ordinance that would forbid landlords from banning tenants from installing air conditioning in Spokane rental at any time when the National Weather Service issues a heat alert. 

It has happened. The Seattle Times reports that the nonprofit Spokane Neighborhood Action Partners have ordered the removal of air conditioning units in one apartment complex due to liability worries. 

Even if the ordinance is enacted, landlords would surely find loopholes. For instance, a common lease provision bars tenants from altering a rental unit without permission. Or do things that make the landlord pay an increased electricity bill. Those rules could effectively ban window air conditioners. 

I get it. Window air conditioners aren't necessarily the prettiest things in the world. But as heat waves worsen and lengthy under the strength of climate change, these ugly little boxes will more often become lifesaving devices.