A billion-dollar empire made of mobile homes

Big private-equity firms buy up hundreds of mobile home parks and call it affordable housing. But whether such investments benefit tenants or merely exploit them is a matter of dispute.

Their company for mobile-home parks has produced tens of millions for investors in recent years and saw a return on investment of more than 30 percent between late 2016 and the end of 2017, according to documents.

Those ample returns arise in part from their willingness to boost the rents of residents of mobile homes. As one investor’s report on the company put it: The “senior management team has a demonstrated track record of increasing home rental rates.”