Valley mobile home parks closing, high moving costs force residents to abandon homes

Added: 2026-05-05

[00:00:00]As they box up life and leave behind the home they thought would be their American dream. Where are you going?

[00:00:05]Don't know. Many mobile homes aren't really that mobile. The Arizona Department of Housing tells me that the majority of people who are forced to leave a mobile home park end up abandoning their house, receiving a relocation stipend, and starting over.

[00:00:18]We're just going to have to abandon it.

[00:00:20]The state's relocation fund will give people up to $5,000 for a single wide and $8,000 for a double wide when someone chooses to abandon their home.

[00:00:28]You know, it's hard. This heartbreaking reality for many leading me to look at what the actual logistics of making a mobile home move. When you go online to the state housing department's installer portal, you'll be able to see that there are pages and pages of qualified valid installers that the state approves of.

[00:00:45]However, I'm told by the state department that only roughly eight to 10 of those contractors do full relocations.

[00:00:51]>> Every mobile home owner pays into the state's relocation fund. It's about $12 million and in 2023, payouts increased to $12,500 for contractors to move a single wide or $20,000 to move a double wide. Through a public records request, I received invoices from licensed movers over the past few years, which shows costs all over the place. Quotes for moving single wides came in from $13,000 to $25,000 and double wides from $22,000 as high as $45,000.

[00:01:20]All this showing that nearly every single invoice before and after the 2023 pay increase is hundreds, if not thousands of dollars higher than the payback given by the state fund.