Mayes' Tucson event focuses on utility issues, eviction threats inside mobile home parks

Attorney General Kris Mayes was in Tucson on Thursday meeting with residents about issues they’re facing in the mobile home parks where they live.

Mayes held a roundtable event at a YMCA in northwest Tucson alongside Rep. Betty Villegas, a Democrat who represents westside Tucson's Legislative District 2.

They heard from about a dozen residents living in mobile home parks around Tucson about skyrocketing utility bills, inaccurate meter readings and eviction threats they were facing from management and landlords.

Alisa Reznick/KJZZ

Mayes says it was during a town hall event earlier this year where she first heard about submetering, where mobile home residents pay fees on top of their normal electricity rates.

“What is happening is it’s actually the landlord who is achieving a higher profit by juicing up the cost of the electricity that they have purchased wholesale,” she said.

Resident Octavia Smith told Mayes she bought her mobile home 20 years ago. Now, rising costs and other issues at the park where she lives are forcing her out.

“The business of trying to shove us seniors out of the way, just get us out of the way and take our homes, is an epidemic at Desert Shore Estates,” she said.

Alisa Reznick/KJZZ

This week, Mayes announced park operator Skyline Real Estate will be crediting residents hundreds of dollars after overcharging them for utilities for several years — part of an ongoing investigation into the practice.

Last week, Mayes announced her office was suing the Redwood Mobile Home Park for failing to inform residents the electrical system was dangerously overloaded.

Michelle Palafox is a mother of three and a resident at that park. She says she’s been without gas for two weeks now. On Monday, the AC shut off at 2 a.m. when the electricity went out.

“I’m paying for gas, but it doesn’t work,” she said. “It’s difficult having to struggle, especially the electric going off in the middle of midnight, having nowhere to go — having to be blamed like we overuse it, when everything needs to be updated in the park.”

Palafox said she’s still on a waiting list for the gas in her house to get fixed. She hoped to see updates and improvements made in the park now that the attorney general’s office has filed suit.